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ELIXIR. “Protoplasm has aptly been called life stuff, for life cannot exist without it.” (Not true for viruses}. https://lnkd.in/dk-W3ch View in LinkedIn

WATER CONTENT. “The percentage of water in the protoplasm of an organism depends directly on the age, habitat and metabolic activities. For example, the cells of the embryo have 90 to 95% water which decreases progressively in the cells of adult organism. Aquatic lower animal cells possess more water than the cells of higher terrestrial animals.” http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/biology/protoplasm-physical-and-chemical-nature-of-protoplasm-biology/5147 View in LinkedIn

CELLULAR WATER. “The water occurs in two forms—free water, and bound water, Ninety five percent of the total cellular water is free water in which various inorganic substances and organic compounds are found dissolved. The remaining five percent of the total cellular water is bound water which is loosely linked with protein molecules by hydrogen bonds or other forces.” http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/biology/protoplasm-physical-and-chemical-nature-of-protoplasm-biology/5147 View in LinkedIn

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SO ENDS this first of two weekends on the subject of protoplasm. Although its fine structure has been elucidated further, it still remains a rather mysterious substance, backed by a biological lore that is almost mystical, pure food for the Vitalists. It is hard not to have sympathy with Vitalists when contemplating this marvelous stuff, by whose fine structure proximate chemistry in vitro in buffered solutions with pure reagents would not occur. View in LinkedIn

SLIME MOLD PULSES. “Physarum polycephalum. “Contraction occurs when the fibrils are formed, and it ends when the fibrils dissociate.” https://lnkd.in/dNsAwef View in LinkedIn

PUBLIC VIEW. “In November of 1940, Time magazine celebrated the “primordial heartbeat” manifest in the “pulse of protoplasm” from the lowly slime mold, Physarum polycephalum.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jipb.12317/full View in LinkedIn

AN ACT OF CHARITY. “It is perhaps more foolhardy than courageous to assert that an almost universally used term is meaningless. Yet such an assertion I make here. I believe that a careful consideration of the term protoplasm will convince the unprejudiced judge that its various assigned meanings are so contradictory and have such uncertain reference to facts that to call the term meaningless is no more than an act of simple charity.” http://www.jstor.org/stable/42581616 View in LinkedIn

BEYOND CHEMISTRY ALONE. “Protoplasm refers to a mixture of chemicals that can collectively use sources of energy and chemical building blocks in a suitable environment to synthesize or assimilate more of the same set of chemicals.” https://lnkd.in/dq_dKJk View in LinkedIn