What Is Life?

How Chemistry Becomes Biology

By: Addy Pross

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's Summary

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.

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.

Books should be simple but not too simple

The author offers nothing towards answering the title "What is Life" and offers nothing but the most simplistic presentation for addressing the subtitle "How Chemistry Becomes Biology".

When he does address the title, he forces the presentation into his preferred world view of teleonomy (just a fancy way of saying animate objects are teleological and inanimate objects are not, whatever).

He's going to equate maximum efficiency with DKS (dynamic kinetic systems) and explain that life arises from that process.

I did get irritated at the author. He makes the statement along the lines "to understand the what of life, one first needs to know the how it came about, and then take the particular to the general and then make the universal principals before proceeding". I fault that formulation in order for understanding and explaining of nature. (It's a very Kantian formulation of science, and I saw it just as an excuse for the author to not address the title of the book).

The author really added nothing new whatsoever to my understanding of what is life and where did it come from. There was nothing new or novel in this book. Books like this one are why I slowed down reading science books. They need to teach me something new, something I did not already know, and be so good that I want to re-listen to them again for their novel presentations and the new insights they showed me. This book did none of those things.

I wasted my time with this book. I would recommend Hazen's Great Course Lecture, "Origins of Life", Wagner's "Arrival of the Fittest" which considers the topology of the possible maximum efficiency paths which "What is Life" tries to explain from time to time but not adequately, and I would recommend, Rutherford's "Creations: How Science is Reinventing Life Itself", a book which is not too simple and not too complex but explains the things presented in this book as they should have been (and regretfully which seems to have been completely ignored by the reading (and listening) public).

Philosophical approach to Chemistry and Biology

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Maybe someone with more philosophical inclinations, someone who doesn't mind simplification at the expense of accuracy.

What was most disappointing about Addy Pross’s story?

Loosely defined terms and a rather liberal use of definitions (meaning of which should be very clear to a scientist) makes this text ultimately impenetrable to the enthusiast and irritating to the professional. Just one example: the term "autocatalytic" is used consistently in place of "thermodynamically feasible". The big picture isn't right in my view either: a "replicating system" is already far-from-equilibrium thermodynamically, so "Once a molecule (or set of molecules) can successfully replicate itself and acquires some mechanism for harvesting energy from its surroundings, it can break free from the shackles of the second law of thermodynamics" presents a circular argument and even that stated backwards.

Which scene was your favorite?

The good-old example of unplugging the tub and observing the far-from-equilibrium whirlpool forming as a response to free energy dissipation and the Second Law in action came pretty close.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from What Is Life??

The repetitive ones, for sure.

Any additional comments?

"Was ist Leben?" of Erwin Schroedinger is a masterpiece and i found it a bit presumptuous to paraphrase it.

Reader's style

After listening to the sample, I decided I would have to read this rather than listen. The performance is so emphatic, with emphasis in places I find incongruous, that it distracts from the author's message.

Good attempt but not quite the answer

I love that Pross tried to take up Schrödinger's, "What is Life" challenge, and I also really like that he attempted to extend our definition of life. Both of those things are necessary if we want to update our theory of evolution. I don't necessarily think he found the answer, but he made some interesting arguments and asked important questions.

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.

Here comes everyone

The origin of cellular life is ripe for making scientific and career advances. There are a barrage of texts speculating on the origins of cellular life. This book is without content -- it is YAOT -- yet another origin theory, but unlike nick lane, in vital life, it has no details, and provides an argue for the inadequacy of current theory without providing any details of its own. Th correct way to have written this book would have been to lay his theory in a introductory first chapter and then detail its support. Robert hazen is another ... There isn't time in anyone's life for this book.

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.

Smart idea, poorly expressed

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

Wow!!!!

Wonderful teacher. Wonderful material. Wonderful reader. Can’t be read while distracted. Be prepared to see the world in a different way!

Such a complete experience

After many years of pondering if we, life, are not mere a reaction, this book provides a much more shuttle and profound answer to the question what life is. An amazing read/listen and completely inspiaring

this book won't teach you much but..

this book its more like philosophical essay which author tries to show how difficult it's the question what is life. I enjoyed but it wasn't what I was exactly looking for. Also it is about the orogin of new aproach to the question- Systems Chemistry

Better than Schrodinger!

I have listened to What is Life with mounting excitement until the crescendo of a dinal chapter Bravo. Schrodinger would have approved.

not that surprising

Heared nothing new....well known theories and ideas redressed with new wording. Not as intetesting as it promisses to be.