Talk:Entropy and life

Nested appositive
Until you realize that you're reading German, this passage seems ungrammatical.

Germanic syntax [from the original]:

When we reflect how generally physical phenomena are connected with thermal changes and relations, it at once becomes obvious that there are few, if any, branches of natural science which are not more or less dependent upon the great truths under consideration. Nor should it, therefore, be a matter of surprise that already, in the short space of time, not yet one generation, elapsed since the mechanical theory of heat has been freely adopted, whole branches of physical science have been revolutionized by it.

English syntax:

When we reflect how generally physical phenomena are connected with thermal changes and relations, it at once becomes obvious that there are few, if any, branches of natural science which are not more or less dependent upon the great truths under consideration. Nor should it, therefore, be a matter of surprise that already, in the short space of time—not yet one generation—elapsed since the mechanical theory of heat has been freely adopted, whole branches of physical science have been revolutionized by it.

Clear, but insipid:

When we reflect how generally physical phenomena are connected with thermal changes and relations, it at once becomes obvious that there are few, if any, branches of natural science which are not more or less dependent upon the great truths under consideration. Nor should it, therefore, be a matter of surprise that already, in the short space of time elapsed since the mechanical theory of heat has been freely adopted, not yet one generation, whole branches of physical science have been revolutionized by it.

Syntactic reconstruction rendered trivial, but cadence suffers a tremendous beat down.

So what do you do, place the editorial mdashes between square brackets? Or leave it for the next guy to stumble over again?

Streamlined:

When we reflect how generally physical phenomena are connected with thermal changes and relations, it at once becomes obvious that there are few, if any, branches of natural science which are not more or less dependent upon the great truths under consideration. Nor should it, therefore, be a matter of surprise that already, [in not yet one academic generation] since the mechanical theory of heat has been freely adopted, whole branches of physical science have been revolutionized by it.

I'm not enamoured of the streamlined version, but neither am I enamoured of leaving a stick exposed to poke the eye. &mdash; MaxEnt 22:14, 24 August 2019 (UTC)

Outdated
This article is just another in a long line of hopelessly outdated pop science getting in the way of accurate and useful information fit for public consumption. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:6000:2fc0:9:441c:7722:28d:b2af (talk) 02:32, 7 June 2021 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: ASTBIO 502 Astrobiology Special Topics -Origin Of Life
— Assignment last updated by Aulses (talk) 22:32, 4 December 2023 (UTC)