What Is Life?
How Chemistry Becomes Biology
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Narrated by:
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Derek Perkins
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By:
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Addy Pross
About this listen
Seventy years ago, Erwin Schrdinger posed a simple, yet profound, question: What is life?. How could the very existence of such extraordinary chemical systems be understood? This problem has puzzled biologists and physical scientists both before, and 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? Did life begin with replicating molecules, and, if so, 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 entities results in a tendency for certain 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 and more fundamental chemical principle: the whole story from replicating molecules to complex life is one continuous coherent chemical process governed by a simple definable principle.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2012, Addy Pross (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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- Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False
- By: Thomas Nagel
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 3 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The modern materialist approach to life has conspicuously failed to explain such central mind-related features of our world as consciousness, intentionality, meaning, and value. This failure to account for something so integral to nature as mind, argues philosopher Thomas Nagel, is a major problem, threatening to unravel the entire naturalistic world picture, extending to biology, evolutionary theory, and cosmology. Since minds are features of biological systems that have developed through evolution, the standard materialist version of evolutionary biology is fundamentally incomplete.
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Intellectual honesty at its finest
- By Alice Walker on 02-15-18
By: Thomas Nagel
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Is God a Mathematician?
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- Narrated by: Tom Parks
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Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner once wondered about "the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" in the formulation of the laws of nature. Is God a Mathematician? investigates why mathematics is as powerful as it is. From ancient times to the present, scientists and philosophers have marveled at how such a seemingly abstract discipline could so perfectly explain the natural world. More than that - mathematics has often made predictions, for example, about subatomic particles or cosmic phenomena that were unknown at the time, but later were proven to be true.
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Origins of Mathematics
- By Rick B on 07-08-21
By: Mario Livio
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Radical Abundance
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K. Eric Drexler is the founding father of nanotechnology - the science of engineering on a molecular level. In Radical Abundance, he shows how rapid scientific progress is about to change our world. Thanks to atomically precise manufacturing, we will soon have the power to produce radically more of what people want, and at a lower cost. The result will shake the very foundations of our economy and environment.
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Drexler Rehashes the Past
- By David on 10-19-13
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Creation
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- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
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What is life? Humans have been asking this question for thousands of years. But as technology has advanced and our understanding of biology has deepened, the answer has evolved. For decades, scientists have been exploring the limits of nature by modifying and manipulating DNA, cells, and whole organisms to create new ones that could never have previously existed on their own.
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The Goldilocks book on what is life
- By Gary on 07-11-13
By: Adam Rutherford
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Freedom Evolves
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Can there be freedom and free will in a deterministic world? Renowned philosopher Daniel Dennett emphatically answers "yes!" Using an array of provocative formulations, Dennett sets out to show how we alone among the animals have evolved minds that give us free will and morality. Weaving a richly detailed narrative, Dennett explains in a series of strikingly original arguments - drawing upon evolutionary biology, cognitive neuroscience, economics, and philosophy - that far from being an enemy of traditional explorations of freedom, morality, and meaning, the evolutionary perspective can be an indispensable ally.
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I knew I was going to like this book
- By Gary on 05-30-14
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The Equations of Life
- How Physics Shapes Evolution
- By: Charles S. Cockell
- Narrated by: Ian Porter
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In The Equations of Life, biologist Charles S. Cockell makes the forceful argument that the laws of physics narrowly constrain how life can evolve, making evolution's outcomes predictable. If we were to find something very much like a lady bug eating something very much like an aphid on a distant planet, we shouldn't be surprised. The forms of life are guided by a limited set of rules, and, as a result, there is a narrow set of solutions to the challenges of existence.
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Too many equations, not enough insights
- By Alec Drumm on 09-24-18
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Knocking on Heaven's Door
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- By: Lisa Randall
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
- Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins
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The latest developments in physics have the potential to radically revise our understanding of the world: its makeup, its evolution, and the fundamental forces that drive its operation. Knocking on Heaven's Door is an exhilarating and accessible overview of these developments and an impassioned argument for the significance of science. There could be no better guide than Lisa Randall.
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Too Political
- By Allan on 12-14-11
By: Lisa Randall
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The Story of Western Science
- From the Writings of Aristotle to the Big Bang Theory
- By: Susan Wise Bauer
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Far too often, public discussion of science is carried out by journalists, voters, and politicians who have received their science secondhand. The Story of Western Science shows us the joy and importance of reading groundbreaking science writing for ourselves and guides us back to the masterpieces that have changed the way we think about our world, our cosmos, and ourselves.
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Good text, tedious book structure
- By Diane K. on 10-07-15
By: Susan Wise Bauer
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Why Darwin Matters
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- By: Michael Shermer
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Columnist and publisher Michael Shermer, once an evangelical Christian and a creationist, argues that Intelligent Design proponents invoke a combination of ad science, political antipathy, and flawed theology in their new brand of creationism. He refutes their pseudoscientific arguments and then demonstrates why conservatives and people of faith can and should embrace evolution. Why Darwin Matters is an incisive examination of what is at stake in the debate over evolution.
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TOTAL MISREPRENTATION: WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE?
- By Theo Tsourdalakis on 09-04-11
By: Michael Shermer
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What listeners say about What Is Life?
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Charley Yeager
- 06-26-15
Very capable theory of life developed here.
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Absolutely, if you're very interested in life origin that is. It was a slow boil with the last two chapters carrying the best content.
Which scene was your favorite?
I was constantly impressed to learn how much has been discovered about the replicating behavior of DNA.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The winding explanation of the difficult (to me) concept of dynamic stability which is responsible for the increasing complexity in living systems was gratifying and very substantive.
Any additional comments?
This book feels current and far ahead of any thing I had previously learned about the subject.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Daniel Crumbo
- 08-22-15
Smart idea, poorly expressed
Important and thought-provoking thesis, but the prose is turgid and self-indulgent. Needs editor or probably a co-author.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 04-19-18
excellent book, make's me want to read it again.
there's so much information on everything single topic of life imaginable, in love with this book.
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1 person found this helpful
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- J. Barna
- 10-14-17
An accessible layman’s into to molecular biology
This is an accessible layman’s into to molecular biology with excellent examples opening up life’s mysterious roots in the emergence of order from the “molecular storm.“
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- Daegan Smith
- 04-06-15
Profound & Life Changing...
Where does What Is Life? rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
This is one of the best audiobooks I've invested in on audible. As a college graduate with a BS in Biology concentrated in neuropharmacology and a minor in chemistry who's favorite course were molecular evolution and organic chemistry this was like going home.
I'd say this as a warning, if you're not familiar with terms like chirality or the process in which genes are expressed this might be a stretch from a comprehension standpoint, but if you are up for the challenge this book is absolutely worth it.
It's worth it anyway. It absolutely makes good on the title in far more comprehensive way than I expected.
For me, if I leave with with far more clarity than I started with on a subject I love, new questions about it that further my personal exploration of the subject, AND profound insights on things in realms far removed from the topic itself, that's what learning is about and that's exactly what this is.
What is life? Well, you'll find the most clear, lucid, quantifiable, and deductively valid answer to that question and a LOT more right here.
The value of the experience and permanent change to my world view FAR outweighs the cost.
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55 people found this helpful
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- Stephane MacMaster
- 05-02-16
Excellent book
If you could sum up What Is Life? in three words, what would they be?
Great review on fundamental issues we all think about.
What did you like best about this story?
The journey...from key historical events to where we are today with this key question.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Doubting Tim
- 08-28-15
Almost explains ...
Would you listen to What Is Life? again? Why?
I have listened to it a couple of times. If you've spent 20 years or so being perplexed about reductionism's usefulness in science but determined rejection of systems thinking and wholism, and its insistence on everything being continuous with physics, and take a sane approach to evolution, you may be drawn to biocentrism. But biology has been inadequate for at least a century, and the paradox of life as radically discontinuous with dead matter is (ahem) vitally interesting. It certainly isn't answered by mechanistic genetics.
This book is a lucid explanation of the issues, and as such is well worth listening to. The author places the big ideas in context very helpfully. He then plumps for reductionism and says wholism is a species of reductionism, and apart from giving some very interesting updates of long-chain amino acids, really does not offer a convincing new theory.
But his scientific recapping of the issues, addressed rationally, are a refreshing change from a dogmatic science-versus-religion bunfight with an arrogantly dismissive Dawkins in one corner and some deranged God-botherer in the other.
I came away feeling I had a much better grasp on the bigger picture in philosophy of science. But there is still a fault-line between organic chemistry and bio-chemistry which chemistry can't / won't address. A virus may be a bridge between living and non-living, as we were taught at school back in the Dark Ages, but a virus still doesn't explain the leap.
If you're not a ponderer and puzzler you might not like it. But if you do lie in bed at night thinking about things like reductionism and mereology, this is not 'academic' in a tedious way, and you might like it. I did.
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- ADog
- 09-29-16
Loved it
Very insightful and wonderful explanations. I was reintroduced to ideas and shown them in a different way as to expand my understand of life and it's origins. There was a clear and expansive discussion on the differences in the scientific and philosophical ideas of life.
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- Jared
- 06-10-16
interesting
some outdated info but overall a good read. I was expecting a more in depth story but I would recommend to friends not in the biology field.
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- Aaron Bonn
- 08-15-15
What are the chances?
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes.
Have you listened to any of Derek Perkins’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I don't believe I have but would again. I was pleased with his work.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I didn't really have any 'extreme' reactions to the book.
Any additional comments?
I'm one of those persons that always believed that extraterrestrial life in all forms is far more likely than not likely. After listening to the facts that this book puts fourth I understand more now how so many circumstances must come together for this to work. But since it did happen in the past (i'm here) it still can happen. I hope so. I don't want us to be alone in the universe.
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