>Can anyone comment on the "live vs. dead" atoms? I
>quit reading at that point.


It is good to strech preconceived ideas,  it is how new concepts  and
understanding arise. Science
history is full of" crazy ideas"  who made their way toward acceptation.
The concept of atomes in the 1st place is just an intellectual image and an
attempt to understand the relationship between matter and energy, not the
reality of life phenomenons. It just happens,  that view have been widely"
accepted" ( enforced thru schooling might be better). It doesn't make it
more real. The quantum physicist went so far in the direction of that
concept that they end up seeing themselves in it ( atoms behaving  as they
wish)
and brought them close to accept the idea of god.
so keep an open mind ,you don't know what is the next lesson to come across
your way.!

<Well, If you buy some broccoli from the store and
<bring it home what do you have?  A dead <broccoli.  Its
<been cut and removed.

That is not correct and specially with brocoli or other cabbages . Do an
experience, buy a cut brocoli and plant the stem in the ground it will send
roots and make a new plant. sometimes they even do that while in storage in
a humid environment, they continue to grow and shoot new buds.
A cut part of a plant is still very much alive  for a while (as long they
don't dry out) and treating them as if they were  inert ,  alter a lot , the
quality of  the food ( storing them in the dark in a plastic bag for ex.) It
hurt me to see lettuces in plastic bag , they can't breathe. I keep my on
the balcony outside , they get the rain,  the  fresh air, the sunlight  and
other more subtils  nourishing energies ,they stay fresh and tasty way
longer that way .Than in my pantry

I often reproduce plants from cuttings ( just a piece of wood or other part
of plants) so i can tell you there is lot of life in those "dead tissues"

Now take the same brocoli and steam it brievly ( to stay gentle with it )
and stick it in the ground and see. even the insects don't want to touch it
it is inedible to most species.

 I guess this means if we <eat
<meat we should go out and tip over a cow and <eat it
<while its still alive.  Who's with

I don't like fresh meat , i like it well "dead" ( in fact very much alive
but with other forms of life)

The understanding of life is not the strengh of scientific approach , they
feel oblige to kill 1st to analyse it . Before the microscope , nothing
smaller than what could be seen by the eyes could be alive, we know now that
life take many forms and what about viruses are they alive or are they not ?
it have been decided they are not alive because they can't reproduce by
themselves. But what about the peoples who reproduce thru artificial means
are they alive or are they not.? what about the mule and seedless watermelon
is it alive or is not not? what about the hybrids and  genetically
enginereed  seeds are they alive or are they not .
before putting down the idea of alive versus dead atoms we better get a good
definition of what life is in the 1st place
From somebody who experienced few times near death experiences and still
seem to be alive. and have emotions about those issues.
jean-claude