What is Life?: How Chemistry Becomes BiologySeventy years ago, Erwin Schrödinger posed a profound question: 'What is life, and how did it emerge from non-life?' This problem has puzzled biologists and physical scientists ever since. Living things are hugely complex and have unique properties, such as self-maintenance and apparently purposeful behaviour which we do not see in inert matter. So how does chemistry give rise to biology? What could have led the first replicating molecules up such a path? Now, developments in the emerging field of 'systems chemistry' are unlocking the problem. Addy Pross shows how the different kind of stability that operates among replicating molecules results in a tendency for chemical systems to become more complex and acquire the properties of life. Strikingly, he demonstrates that Darwinian evolution is the biological expression of a deeper, well-defined chemical concept: the whole story from replicating molecules to complex life is one continuous process governed by an underlying physical principle. The gulf between biology and the physical sciences is finally becoming bridged. This new edition includes an Epilogue describing developments in the concepts of fundamental forms of stability discussed in the book, and their profound implications. Oxford Landmark Science books are 'must-read' classics of modern science writing which have crystallized big ideas, and shaped the way we think. |
Contents
| 1 | |
2 The Quest for a Theory of Life | 32 |
3 Understanding Understanding | 43 |
4 Stability and Instability | 58 |
5 The Knotty Origin of Life Problem | 82 |
6 Biologys Crisis of Identity | 111 |
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Common terms and phrases
abiogenesis able Archaea autocatalytic bacteria bacterial cell bacterium behaviour billion biological systems biologists building blocks capability Carl Woese catalyst chapter characteristics chemical reactions chemical systems chemist chiral complex complexification components Darwin Darwinian discussed DNA replication dynamic kinetic stability energy energy-gathering essence evolutionary explain fact far-from-equilibrium forms function fundamental Gerald Joyce greater DKS highly historical holistic homochirality individual insights Jacques Monod kind of stability life’s living cell living systems living things material mechanism metabolic molecular biology molecular replication mutation natural selection non-living nucleic acid nucleotides organized origin particular pattern physicists population prebiotic chemistry prebiotic earth principle problem process of complexification protein question reductionist replicating entity replicating molecules replicating systems replication reaction replicative world RNA chain RNA molecule RNA strand scientific Second Law self-replicating sense sequence Sol Spiegelman species stability kind systems biology systems chemistry teleonomic character theory thermodynamic tion transformed understand unstable world of replicating