What Is Life?: How Chemistry Becomes Biology
| AUTHOR | Pross, Addy |
| PUBLISHER | Oxford University Press, USA (11/01/2012) |
| PRODUCT TYPE | Hardcover (Hardcover) |
Description
Seventy years ago, Erwin Schrodinger 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.
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Product Format
Product Details
ISBN-13:
9780199641017
ISBN-10:
0199641013
Binding:
Hardback or Cased Book (Sewn)
Content Language:
English
More Product Details
Page Count:
256
Carton Quantity:
1
Product Dimensions:
5.60 x 0.70 x 8.60 inches
Weight:
0.85 pound(s)
Feature Codes:
Bibliography,
Index,
Dust Cover,
Price on Product,
Table of Contents,
Illustrated
Country of Origin:
GB
Subject Information
BISAC Categories
Science | Life Sciences - Evolution
Science | Chemistry - General
Science | Life Sciences - Biochemistry
Dewey Decimal:
570.1
Library of Congress Control Number:
2012538842
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
publisher marketing
Seventy years ago, Erwin Schrodinger 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.
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Author:
Pross, Addy
ADDY PROSS is Professor of Chemistry at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel, and an Australian Research Council Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sydney, Australia. Professor Pross received his PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Sydney.
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