@dalehileman,
Nor am I (a physicist) Dale (I do have a great interest in, and knowledge thereof though). And I'm just trying to point out - Science can only measure what is measurable. Beyond that, we rely on imagination.
It would be awesome if we could find Non-Terran life - Prove a universal consciousness - Travel interdimensionally, etc.
But these, along with souls, spirits, gods, afterlives, etc, concepts are simply so (concepts/ideas/imaginations).
If you or anyone choose to call a person's identity/essence/uniqueness a soul - That's fine - But it must be applied to everything's identity/essence/uniqueness - every piece of material that exists.
Humanising it is just a way of elevating (godifying) humans above all other things that exist. And all things are equal in importance in a realm of all things.