RT Article
T1 Chance and Necessity in Arthur Peacocke's Scientific Work
JF Zygon
VO 43
IS 1
SP 75
OP 87
A1 Woloschak, Gayle E.
LA English
PB Wiley-Blackwell
YR 2008
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1827959843
AB Abstract. Arthur Peacocke was one of the most important scholars to contribute to the modern dialogue on science and religion, and for this he is remembered in the science-religion community. Many people, however, are unaware of his exceptional career as a biochemist prior to his decision to pursue a life working as a clergyman in the Church of England. His contributions to studies of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) structure, effects of radiation damage on DNA, and on the interactions of DNA and proteins are among the most important in the field at the time and have had a lasting scientific impact that is still felt today. Peacocke's arguments with Jacques Monod over stochastic (chance) and deterministic (necessity) processes driving evolution became important independently for both the science and the religion communities and appear to have contributed significantly to his decision to become involved in science-religion dialogue rather than continuing his work exclusively in the field of science. Nevertheless, although Peacocke took on an active church life and ceased his experimental work, he never left science but continued to read the scientific literature and published a scientific review on different approaches in defining DNA structure as recently as 2005.
K1 stochastic processes
K1 RNA—ribonucleic acid
K1 Evolution
K1 DNA—deoxyribonucleic acid
K1 deterministic processes
DO 10.1111/j.1467-9744.2008.00900.x