What Is Life?

How Chemistry Becomes Biology

By: Addy Pross

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

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.

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.

Smart idea, poorly expressed

Important and thought-provoking thesis, but the prose is turgid and self-indulgent. Needs editor or probably a co-author.

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.

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.“

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.