Life as No One Knows It
The Physics of Life's Emergence
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Narrated by:
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Sara Imari Walker
About this listen
An intriguing new scientific theory that explains what life is and how it emerges.
What is life? This is among the most difficult open problems in science, right up there with the nature of consciousness and the existence of matter. All the definitions we have fall short. None help us understand how life originates or the full range of possibilities for what life on other planets might look like.
In Life as No One Knows It, physicist and astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker argues that solving the origin of life requires radical new thinking and an experimentally testable theory for what life is. This is an urgent issue for efforts to make life from scratch in laboratories here on Earth and missions searching for life on other planets.
Walker proposes a new paradigm for understanding what physics encompasses and what we recognize as life. She invites us into a world of maverick scientists working without a map, seeking not just answers but better ways to formulate the biggest questions we have about the universe. The book culminates with the bold proposal of a new theory for identifying and classifying life, one that applies not just to biological life on Earth but to any instance of life in the universe. Rigorous, accessible, and vital, Life as No One Knows It celebrates the mystery of life and the explanatory power of physics.
©2024 Sara Imari Walker (P)2024 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Bracingly original. . . . This has the potential to be a game changer."—Publishers Weekly (★starred review★)
"An honorable addition to a small genre that began with Noble Prize-winning physicist Erwin Schrodinger’s What Is Life? . . . Ingenious."—Kirkus Reviews
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- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Hilarious, fascinating, and a roller coaster of dizzying, historical what-ifs, Napoleon's Hemorrhoids is a potpourri for serious historians and casual history buffs. In one of Phil Mason's many revelations, you'll learn that Communist jets were two minutes away from opening fire on American planes during the Cuban missile crisis, when they had to turn back as they were running out of fuel. You'll discover that before the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon's painful hemorrhoids prevented him from mounting his horse to survey the battlefield.
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They just throw the facts too fast
- By Concerned_llama on 12-11-20
By: Phil Mason
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Plant Science: An Introduction to Botany
- By: Catherine Kleier, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Catherine Kleier
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Original Recording
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Dr. Catherine Kleier invites us to open our eyes to the phenomenal world of plant life and to the process she calls “Natura Revelata”, the joy of celebrating and learning from the secrets of nature. As Dr. Kleier shares her knowledge with contagious excitement for her subject, she emphasizes the middle ground: Instead of focusing on cell microbiology or the study of ecosystems and habitats, she stresses the basic biology, function, and the amazing adaptations of the plants we see all around us.
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Needs accompanying documentation and visual aides
- By Ryan on 04-04-19
By: Catherine Kleier, and others
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Cosmic Queries
- StarTalk’s Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going
- By: James Trefil, Lindsey N. Walker - editor, Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In this illuminating audiobook, Tyson and coauthor James Trefil, a renowned physicist and science popularizer, take on the big questions that humanity has been posing for millennia - How did life begin? What is our place in the universe? Are we alone? - and provide answers based on the most current data, observations, and theories.
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Not worth it
- By Daniel Earl on 03-15-21
By: James Trefil, and others
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The Theory of Everything: The Quest to Explain All Reality
- By: Don Lincoln, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Don Lincoln
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Original Recording
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At the end of his career, Albert Einstein was pursuing a dream far more ambitious than the theory of relativity. He was trying to find an equation that explained all physical reality - a theory of everything. Experimental physicist and award-winning educator Dr. Don Lincoln takes you on this exciting journey in The Theory of Everything: The Quest to Explain All Reality. Suitable for the intellectually curious at all levels and assuming no background beyond basic high-school math, these 24 half-hour lectures cover recent developments at the forefront of particle physics and cosmology.
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Audible’s Best Science Offering, A Gem
- By MikeB on 12-08-18
By: Don Lincoln, and others
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The Quantum Universe
- (And Why Anything That Can Happen, Does)
- By: Brian Cox, Jeff Forshaw
- Narrated by: Samuel West
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Quantum Universe, Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw approach the world of quantum mechanics in the same way they did in Why Does E=mc2? and make fundamental scientific principles accessible - and fascinating - to everyone.The subatomic realm has a reputation for weirdness, spawning any number of profound misunderstandings, journeys into Eastern mysticism, and woolly pronouncements on the interconnectedness of all things. Cox and Forshaw's contention? There is no need for quantum mechanics to be viewed this way.
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Not suitable as an audio book
- By SPN on 03-29-22
By: Brian Cox, and others
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I really enjoyed her perspective on the subject
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Many books have been written about J. Doyne Farmer and his work, but this is the first in his own words. It presents a manifesto for how to do economics better. In this tale of science and ideas, Farmer fuses his profound knowledge and expertise with stories from his life to explain how we can bring a scientific revolution to bear on the economic conundrums facing society.
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The best economics book I’ve ever read
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Some Assembly Required
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Over billions of years, ancient fish evolved to walk on land, reptiles transformed into birds that fly, and apelike primates evolved into humans that walk on two legs, talk, and write. For more than a century, paleontologists have traveled the globe to find fossils that show how such changes have happened.
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Interesting but thin. ANNOYING narration
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By: Neil Shubin
What listeners say about Life as No One Knows It
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Gustavo Medina Tanco
- 11-09-24
Superficial
The objective of the book is not very clear. Furthermore, it lacks depth. It sounds like a forced collection of trivial scientific facts coming from a broad area of physics, not clearly related to the subject suggested by the title, and not well justified speculations, all presented superficially. The voice, cadence and lack of luster of the reader makes the experience even worse.
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- Sequoia Spencer
- 08-09-24
very interesting
Interesting and entertaining, could have been longer. I love it when the author narrates.
I would recommend.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 08-19-24
I hope there's more to come.
I've enjoyed following Sara Walker's work since her Big Biology interview several years ago. I love her way of thinking and find her theories thought provoking. I think the book was less illuminating and more confusing than her various podcast appearances. I was hoping for a deep dive into how assembly theory worked. This book felt like an introduction, and the audio reading was fairly monotoned and staccato. In the end, I hope she writes another and keeps at it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- John linden
- 09-10-24
Fascinating thought patterns
Engaging and thought provoking views on the universe. A great way of explaining we don't know what we don't know.
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- Amanda N
- 09-11-24
Amazing
This is such an interesting concept that not only challenges the growth of our current understanding but provides a very interesting philosophy of how to perceive life. I will certainly listen to this again over time.
Personally, understanding how important the passing of time and the building of information are gives me great comfort. Now knowing how even the mundane things in life are actually so critically important and everlasting is a game changer. I have always felt that on a spiritual level but now can directly connect that to reality.
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- Ty Sowry
- 11-14-24
Fantastic introduction to Assembly Theory
Great book introducing an emerging idea of life and the physics that governs it. Assembly Theory is innovative, fresh, and deeply intriguing. The writing is engaging and the narration quite pleasant. 10/10, will read again, highly recommend.
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-27-24
Very interesting
Great primer on assembly theory. The theory treats life as the proverbial ship of Theseus, constantly reconstituting itself but having identity as a lineage of information for making more things like it. It defines life in terms of assembly number, or how many steps of recursively constructed objects is required to make an object, where a higher assembly number can only come from life.
Candidly, I had a lot of questions. A standard thought experiment in physics is the "Boltzman brain" that imagines a fully formed brain complete with current memory popping into existence. The author says it is not possible, but in an infinite universe, it is not clear why that is the case. Unfortunately, this book had more filler than answers to these questions. It tantalized with the key questions -- what is information? what is causation? -- without necessarily answering them. Still, it gave a lot to think about and research. Recommended.
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- Donna
- 12-06-24
Too dense for me
Incredibly intelligent woman with a great voice. As much as I tried for weeks forcing myself to listen, i just had to stop. I thought after listening to her on StarTalk I’d be captivated by her argument. Alas it is just to in the weeds for me to enjoy.
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- J. Doggett
- 10-02-24
A new approach to Origin of Life research
I found this to be an excellent introduction to a novel approach to origin of life research. It was credible, well thought out, and supported with solid reasoning. My only detraction would be that it was narrated by the author, and not very well. She should have enlisted a professional narrator,
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- Petter
- 09-09-24
A great listen
Life as No One Knows It by Sara Imari Walker offers a fresh look at how physics might explain the origin of life. It's a fascinating read that makes complex ideas easy to grasp.
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