because the time of Aristotle, there were a transparent divide among the 3 kingdoms of animal, vegetable, and mineral. yet through the eighteenth century, organic experiments, and the big variety of recent creatures coming to Europe from internationally, challenged those neat divisions. Abraham Trembley came upon that freshwater polyps grew into entire participants whilst reduce. This surprising discovery raised deep questions: was once it a plant or an animal? And this used to be now not the
only conundrum. What of coral? was once it a rock or a dwelling shape? Did crops have sexes, like animals? the bounds looked as if it would blur. And what did all this say in regards to the nature of lifestyles itself? have been animals and vegetation soul-less, mechanical varieties, as Descartes prompt? The debates raging across
science performed into a few of the greatest and such a lot debatable problems with Enlightenment Europe. during this ebook, Susannah Gibson explains how a research of pond slime may cause humans to query the lifestyles of the soul; remark of eggs can make a guy doubt that God had created the realm; how the invention of the Venus fly-trap was once associated with the French Revolution; and the way interpretations of fossils may well swap our knowing of the Earth's historical past. utilizing rigorous old research,
and a full of life and readable sort, this booklet vividly captures the massive issues of eighteenth-century technology. And the debates about the divisions of existence didn't finish there; they proceed to have resonances in sleek biology.