No one did more to advance our understanding of Lavoisier’s contributions to the history of science than Yale University’s own Professor Larry Holmes. In Lavoisier and the Chemistry of Life, Prof. Holmes traced carefully through Lavoisier’s investigations to explore how this renown chemist came to the study of physiology. Prof. Holmes showed that Lavoisier’s work on plant and animal respiration was the logical continuity for his earlier research on the chemical nature of oxygen and other gases. What made this continuity feasible was Lavoisier’s commitment to the idea of conservation of matter in nature (that he himself developed) and to the role of life in that process.