What Is Life?Half a century ago, before the discovery of DNA, the Austrian physicist and philosopher Erwin Schrödinger inspired a generation of scientists by rephrasing the fascinating philosophical question: What is life? Using their expansive understanding of recent science to wonderful effect, acclaimed authors Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan revisit this timeless question in a fast-moving, wide-ranging narrative that combines rigorous science with philosophy, history, and poetry. The authors move deftly across a dazzling array of topics—from the dynamics of the bacterial realm, to the connection between sex and death, to theories of spirit and matter. They delve into the origins of life, offering the startling suggestion that life—not just human life—is free to act and has played an unexpectedly large part in its own evolution. Transcending the various formal concepts of life, this captivating book offers a unique overview of life’s history, essences, and future. Supplementing the text are stunning illustrations that range from the smallest known organism (Mycoplasma bacteria) to the largest (the biosphere itself). Creatures both strange and familiar enhance the pages of What Is Life? Their existence prompts readers to reconsider preconceptions not only about life but also about their own part in it. |
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WHAT IS LIFE?
User Review - KirkusThe authors of Mystery Dance: The Evolution of Human Sexuality (1991) return to the fundamental biological questions, this time taking on the slipperiest of all issues. Wisely, they avoid any ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - yapete - LibraryThingMargulis is a first rate biologist, but this book falls far short of my expectations. It seems like she received an invitation to write book and put this one hastily together. It jumps from one thing ... Read full review
Contents
XLIV | 125 |
XLV | 129 |
XLVI | 131 |
XLVII | 133 |
XLVIII | 144 |
XLIX | 144 |
L | 146 |
LI | 148 |
LII | 151 |
LIII | 156 |
LIV | 159 |
LV | 163 |
LVI | 167 |
LVII | 169 |
LVIII | 173 |
LIX | 174 |
LX | 178 |
LXI | 180 |
LXII | 185 |
LXIII | 186 |
LXIV | 191 |
LXV | 194 |
LXVI | 197 |
LXVII | 199 |
LXVIII | 202 |
LXIX | 205 |
LXX | 210 |
LXXI | 213 |
LXXII | 216 |
LXXIII | 221 |
LXXIV | 223 |
LXXV | 226 |
LXXVI | 227 |
LXXVII | 232 |
LXXVIII | 237 |
LXXIX | 239 |
LXXX | 247 |
LXXXI | 257 |
LXXXII | 261 |
LXXXIII | 263 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
acid activity algae alive ancestors ancient animals Appearance atmosphere autopoietic bacteria bacterium became become begin biology biosphere body Butler called carbon cells chemical chromosomes communities complex compounds contain continue Darwin death early Earth embryo energy environment eukaryotic evolution evolutionary evolved example existence flowering fossil fungal fungi gametophyte genes genetic global green grow growth heat human hydrogen individuals inside kind Kingdom known land less life's light living material matter means mechanical metabolism microbes million million years ago mind molecules move nature nuclei ocean once organisms origin oxygen perhaps photosynthetic Phylum planetary plants PLATE present produced proteins protists protoctists reproduce rocks scientific scientists seeds selection sense sexual similar single solar space species spores structures surface swimming thought thousand tion transformed trees University York
Popular passages
Page 205 - Owing to the imperfection of language the offspring is termed a new animal, but is in truth a branch or elongation of the parent, since a part of the...
Page 16 - ... the action and reaction of the innumerable plants and animals which have determined, in the course of centuries, the proportional numbers and kinds of trees now growing on the old Indian ruins!
Page 32 - We may now say that our discourse about the nature of the universe has an end. The world has received animals, mortal and immortal, and is fulfilled with them, and has become a visible animal containing the visible — the sensible God who is the image of the intellectual, the greatest, best, fairest, most perfect — the one only-begotten heaven.
Page 65 - It is often said that all the conditions for the first production of a living organism are now present, which could ever have been present. But if (and oh! what a big if) we could conceive in some warm little pond, with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts, light, heat, electricity, etc. present, that a protein compound was chemically formed ready to undergo still more complex changes, at the present day such matter would be instantly devoured or absorbed, which would not have been the case...
Page 109 - Each living creature must be looked at as a microcosm — a little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars in heaven.
Page 16 - Nature proceeds little by little from things lifeless to animal life in such a way that it is impossible to determine the exact line of demarcation, nor on which side thereof an intermediate form should lie.
Page 29 - Before the beginning of years There came to the making of man Time, with a gift of tears; Grief, with a glass that ran; Pleasure, with pain for leaven; Summer, with flowers that fell; Remembrance fallen from heaven, And madness risen from hell; Strength without hands to smite; Love that endures for a breath; Night, the shadow of light, And life, the shadow of death.
Page 40 - or immaterial natural forces. "On the contrary, we hold, with Goethe, that ' Matter cannot exist and be operative without spirit, nor spirit without matter.' We adhere firmly to the pure, unequivocal Monism of Spinoza. Matter, or infinitely extended substance, and spirit (or energy) or sensitive and thinking substance, are the two fundamental attributes or principal properties of the allembracing divine essence of the world, the universal substance.
References to this book
Bibliographic information
| Title | What Is Life? A Peter N. Nevraumont book |
| Authors | Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan |
| Contributor | Niles Eldredge |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | University of California Press, 2000 |
| ISBN | 0520220218, 9780520220218 |
| Length | 288 pages |
| Subjects | › › Philosophy / Political Science / Life Sciences / Biology Science / Life Sciences / Evolution |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |