Overview
In 1944, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Erwin Schrödinger published a groundbreaking little book called What Is Life? In fewer than one hundred pages, he argued that life was not a mysterious or inexplicable phenomenon, as many people believed, but a scientific process like any other, ultimately explainable by the laws of physics and chemistry.
Today, more than sixty years later, members of a new generation of scientists are attempting to create life from the ground up. Science has moved forward in leaps and bounds since Schrödinger's time, but our understanding of what does and does not constitute life has only grown more complex. An era that has already seen computer chip-implanted human brains, genetically engineered organisms, genetically modified foods, cloned mammals, and brain-dead humans kept "alive" by machines is one that demands fresh thinking about the concept of life.
While a segment of our national debate remains stubbornly mired in moral quandaries over abortion, euthanasia, and other "right to life" issues, the science writer Ed Regis demonstrates how science can and does provide us with a detailed understanding of the nature of life. Written in a lively and accessible style, and synthesizing a wide range of contemporary research, What Is Life? is a brief and illuminating contribution to an age-old debate.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
As scientists come closer to creating artificial life, the very definition of life is ever more elusive. Science writer Regis (The Biology of Doom) tackles this large issue and more in a book that never quite finds its focus. By selecting the same title as Nobel laureate Erwin Schrodinger's 1945 classic and Lynn Margulis and Dorian Sagan's 2000 offering, Regis self-consciously situates his book as a response to theirs. He is, however, no more successful than they were in answering the central question, though he proposes cell metabolism as the best definition we currently have. Regis discusses current attempts to use new techniques to create entities that could be considered living, but he fails to tell a compelling story about either the progress being made or the medical implications of these efforts. Instead, he heads off on several well-traveled tangents presenting relatively simple explanations of how we've come to our understanding of DNA, basic metabolic pathways and evolutionary biology. Although he touches on the fact that being able to distinguish animate from inanimate entities is of critical philosophical importance for debates over such issues as abortion, stem cell research and euthanasia, he never does more than scratch the surface of any of these topics. (Apr.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationLibrary Journal
This slim volume by agile science writer Regis (The Biology of Doom ) reminds you how exciting and provocative science can be, as the author pares down the answer to the title's question to the ability to metabolize, reproduce, and evolve. Regis introduces scientists who are synthesizing artificial protocells, which are the building blocks for creating life. Framing this view of synthetic biology are spirited chapters on the discovery of the Krebs cycle, nucleic acids, the idea of hereditary coding, its structure in DNA's double helix, and the role of RNA. Pointedly, What Is Life? echoes the title of Erwin Schrödinger's seminal 1945 book that challenged thinking of the time and, as Regis writes, "launched a thousand geneticists on to their careers, including Maurice Wilkins, James Watson, and Francis Crick." Occasionally, Regis's language strikes a wrong note, such as an awkward "As if!"comment on a questionable experimental supposition, but he stays on point and presents big concepts clearly and concisely. A book that could spark young minds toward a career in science. Recommended for public and undergraduate libraries.-Michal Strutin, Santa Clara Univ. Lib., CA
Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.