Synopses & Reviews
In 1944, the Nobel Prizewinning 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 Schrödingers time, but our understanding of what does and does not constitute life has only grown more complex. An era that has already seen computer chipimplanted 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.
Ed Regis, who holds a PhD in philosophy from New York University, is a full-time science writer, contributing to
Scientific American,
Harpers Magazine,
Wired,
Discover, and
The New York Times, among other periodicals. He is the author of several books, including
The Biology of Doom.
What Is Life? was first published by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1944.
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, members of a new generation of scientists are attempting to create life from the ground up. Since Schrödingers time, as science has progressed forward in leaps and bounds, our understanding of what does and does not constitute life has only grown more complex. An era that has already seen computer chipimplanted 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. Lively and accessible, and synthesizing a wide range of contemporary research,
What Is Life? is a brief and illuminating contribution to an age-old debate. Ed Regis is always a careful researcher, always an independent thinker. In this subversive little book, he shows that the biggest of big questions is still worth askingmore urgently now than ever.”
David Quammen "Book titles should display ambition, and Ed Regis' latest certainly does that. Implicit is progress between two areas of biology. What Is Life? recalls Erwin Schrödinger's famous book of the same name that encouraged many physicists to begin working in molecular biology in the 1940s; synthetic biology is the fast-moving area today. The term synthetic biology was coined in 1974 by Waclaw Szybalski to describe the modification of organisms by adding and subtracting genes. In those days it was known as 'genetic engineering' or 'recombinant DNA technology'. By altering the genes, the organisms act in new ways. At the time, Szybalski's synthetic biology prompted fear. The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, banned genetic engineering entirely. A conference was convened in Asilomar, California, to decide how to manage the new ability to create artificial organisms. Three decades of experience have shown the risks to be negligible but the rewards enormous. Today, the field of synthetic biology is expanding, spawning new university departments, such as the one that hosts Jay Kiesling's laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley in which bacteria are created to produce pharmaceutical intermediates. Craig Venter, a driver of innovation in contemporary genomics, and whose personal genome can be found on the Internet, is going further by proposing reorganization of the natural parts of natural genomes. Some of these restructured microbes are so scrambled that they deserve to be viewed as new species. The remit of synthetic biology has widened as other researchers have adopted the label. In 2000, Eric Kool of Stanford University, California, used it to describe the construction by chemists of unnatural molecules that can operate within natural living systems. To Drew Endy and others at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it means the process of creating, mostly by modifying existing biomolecules, units that can serve as interchangeable parts in larger assemblies. Stephen Wolfram and others view 'artificial life' as a computer program that yields output behaviour that is analogous to the behaviour of living systems. What is Life? captures these differing perspectives well. As expected from a science writer with Regis' record, the book is an easily readable review of the development of contemporary biology, including the first-generation model for DNA structure, the foundation of metabolism, and the elucidationof the genetic code. Furthermore, it captures interactions between scientists who approach synthetic biology differently, providing a brief and entertaining glimpse into the competitive aspects of modern science. For example, one experimenter (Norman Packard of Protolife, based in Venice, Italy), trying to get a real cell made out of real chemicals to work in a real laboratory, sets these activities above trying to write computer programs that simulate parts of biological chemistry. Another (Francis Collins, who heads the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland) is quoted asking, in essence: what's new? Isn't this just the 30-year-old field of genetic engineering sporting a catchier trademark? . . . Will we ever understand what life is? Just as with Schrödinger's book, Regis' text will not be the last word. It is, however, a good place for a lay reader to start, one who welcomes the ambition of its title."Steven Benner, Nature
"The title of Ed Regis's What is Life? comes from Erwin Schrödinger's 1944 classica book that inspired physicists and other scientists to study biological systems, catalysing the field of molecular biology. Regis's book offers an update on the search for a suitable definition of life. On his wild tour of molecular biology and biotechnology, we encounter artificial cells, DNA and RNA and the origin of life . . . Regis is an entertaining and impressive storyteller: check out his anecdote about a 17th-century physician who studied metabolism by systematically weighing himself, his food and his excrement for more than 30 years."Jim Collins, New Scientist
"'Why is there life?' may be a query best left to the cogitation of philosophers and theologians. But when asking 'what is life?,' it would seem fair to turn to scientists, some of whom feel they are coming closer and closer to creating life in their laboratories . . . Today, scientists simulate life on computers. They alter existing life through genetic manipulation. But so far they haven't created life. To get there, they'll have to agree on another question first: What is life? The answer to that question has proved surprisingly elusive, says veteran science writer Ed Regis in his slender, intriguing book What Is Life?"Gregory M. Lamb, The Christian Science Monitor
Ed Regis is always a careful researcher, always an independent thinker. In this subversive little book, he shows that the biggest of big questions is still worth askingmore urgently now than ever.”David QuammenElegant, simple, clear, beautifully written. Regis takes up where Erwin Schrödinger left off and tackles the ultimate mystery of biology. This book is a scrumptious gem.”Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone A comprehensive and elegant analysis of the physical basis of life: an up-to-date successor to Schrodingers 1944 book.”Marvin Minsky, Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, M.I.T., and author of The Emotion Machine "As scientists come closer to creating artificial life, the very definition of life is ever more elusive. Science writer Regis tackles this large issue and more in a book . . . By selecting the same title as Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger's 1945 classic and Lynn Margulis and Dorian Sagan's 2000 offering, Regis self-consciously situates his book as a response to theirs. Regis discusses current attempts to use new techniques to create entities that could be considered living . . . 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."Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
While a segment of the national debate remains stubbornly mired in moral quandaries over abortion, euthanasia, and other "right to life" issues, science writer Regis demonstrates how science can and does provide a detailed understanding of the nature of life.
Synopsis
In 1944, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Erwin Schrodinger 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 Schrodinger'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. Ed Regis, who holds a PhD in philosophy from New York University, is a full-time science writer, contributing to Scientific American, Harper's Magazine, Wired, Discover, and The New York Times, among other periodicals. He is the author of several books, including The Biology of Doom. What Is Life? was first published by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Erwin Schrodinger in 1944. 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, members of a new generation of scientists are attempting to create life from the ground up. Since Schrodinger's time, as science has progressed forward in leaps and bounds, 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. Lively and accessible, and synthesizing a wide range of contemporary research, What Is Life? is a brief and illuminating contribution to an age-old debate. Ed Regis is always a careful researcher, always an independent thinker. In this subversive little book, he shows that the biggest of big questions is still worth asking--more urgently now than ever.--David Quammen
Book titles should display ambition, and Ed Regis' latest certainly does that. Implicit is progress between two areas of biology. What Is Life? recalls Erwin Schrodinger's famous book of the same name that encouraged many physicists to begin working in molecular biology in the 1940s; synthetic biology is the fast-moving area today. The term synthetic biology was coined in 1974 by Waclaw Szybalski to describe the modification of organisms by adding and subtracting genes. In those days it was known as 'genetic engineering' or 'recombinant DNA technology'. By altering the genes, the organisms act in new ways. At the time, Szybalski's synthetic biology prompted fear. The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, banned genetic engineering entirely. A conference was convened in Asilomar, California, to decide how to manage the new ability to create artificial organisms. Three decades of experience have shown the risks to be negligible but the rewards enormous. Today, the field of synthetic biology is expanding, spawning new university departments, such as the one that hosts Jay Kiesling's laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley in which bacteria are created to produce pharmaceutical intermediates. Craig Venter, a driver of innovation in contemporary genomics, and whose personal genome can be found on the Internet, is going further by proposing reorganization of the natural parts of natural genomes. Some of these restructured microbes are so scrambled that they deserve to be viewed as new species. The remit of synthetic biology has widened as other researchers have adopted the label. In 2000, Eric Kool of Stanford University, California, used it to describe the construction by chemists of unnatural molecules that can operate within natural living systems. To Drew Endy and others at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it means the process of creating, mostly by modifying existing biomolecules, units that can serve as interchangeable parts in larger assemblies. Stephen Wolfram and others view 'artificial life' as a computer program that yields output behaviour that is analogous to the behaviour of living systems. What is Life? captures these differing perspectives well. As expected from a science writer with Regis' record, the book is an easily readable review of the development of contemporary biology, including the first-generation model for DNA structure, the foundation of metabolism, and the elucidation of the genetic code. Furthermore, it captures interactions between scientists who approach synthetic biology differently, providing a brief and entertaining glimpse into the competitive aspects of modern science. For example, one experimenter (Norman Packard of Protolife, based in Venice, Italy), trying to get a real cell made out of real chemicals to work in a real laboratory, set
About the Author
Ed Regis, who holds a PhD in philosophy from New York University, is a full-time science writer, contributing to Scientific American, Harper's Magazine, Wired, Discover, and The New York Times, among other periodicals. He is the author of several books, including The Biology of Doom.