Erwin Schrödinger's What is Life? published 60 years ago, influenced much of the development of molecular biology. In this new book Christian De Duve, Nobel Laureate and pioneer of modern cell biology, presents a contemporary response to this classic, providing a sophisticated consideration of the key steps or bottlenecks that constrain the origins and evolution of life. De Duve surveys the entire history of life, including insights into the conditions that may have led to its emergence. He uses as landmarks the many remarkable singularities along the way, such as the single ancestry of all living beings, the universal genetic code, and the monophyletic origin of eukaryotes. The book offers a brief guided tour of biochemistry and phylogeny, from the basic molecular building blocks to the origin of humans. Each successive singularity is introduced in a sequence paralleling the hypothetical development of features and conditions on the primitive earth, explaining how and why each transition to greater complexity occurred.
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Editorial Reviews
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"This book is unquestionably for serious students of biology, biochemistry, and evolution, but anyone willing to work through the details will find a logical tour de force and a powerful illustration of the beauty of evolution."
Choice
"This volume is well written and readable, and I enjoyed de Duve's unique perspective on this difficult topic, which is invariably multidisciplinary...Singularities is an excellent book, and recommended reading for anyone interested in the fundamental questions of life and its origins."
The Quarterly Review of Biology, S.Blair Hedges, Pennsylvania State University
"... lucid and superbly organized..."
BioScience
Choice
"This volume is well written and readable, and I enjoyed de Duve's unique perspective on this difficult topic, which is invariably multidisciplinary...Singularities is an excellent book, and recommended reading for anyone interested in the fundamental questions of life and its origins."
The Quarterly Review of Biology, S.Blair Hedges, Pennsylvania State University
"... lucid and superbly organized..."
BioScience
Book Description
In this new book Christian De Duve, Nobel Laureate and pioneer of modern cell biology, presents a contemporary response to Erwin Schrodinger's classic What is Life? providing a sophisticated consideration of the key steps or bottlenecks that constrain the origins and evolution of life.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the first stirrings of life,
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This review is from: Singularities: Landmarks on the Pathways of Life (Hardcover)
A fascinating account of what is known or conjectured about the first steps in the origin of life, by the master on the subject. He goes right back to the stages before RNA and Darwinian evolution took over, to look at the necessary prerequisites from chemistry. Warning: the author is pulling no punches; the reader needs the capacity to tackle some serious biochemistry.
18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Never fear, it's not a "Creationist/ID" text,
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This review is from: Singularities: Landmarks on the Pathways of Life (Hardcover)
This is an excellent, challenging book. Please do not be put off by the suggestion of one reviewer that it is somehow sympathetic to the nonsensical "intelligent design" and "creation 'science'" religions. It is nothing of the sort. This is a good science book for the secular-minded. See the good review in Nature, August 2006.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Preview Kindle sample before buying!,
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This review is from: Singularities: Landmarks on the Pathways of Life (Kindle Edition)
The Kindle download is in the Topaz (awz1) format and contains very fuzzy text. Download the sample first and make sure you can live with the text font quality. Older books are often converted in the awz1 or Topaz format. This allows for fast conversion at the expense of font quality. I think Amazon owes its Kindle readers a decent crisp font in a $30 book. In particular, look at the larger italicized letters. You will notice that the letters still look ratty at larger font sizes.
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Inside This Book
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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hypothetical multimers, biosynthetic reductions, mineral donor, dehydrating condensation, selective bottleneck, primitive phagocyte, cosmic chemistry, pyrophosphoryl group, nucleotidyl transfer, glycolytic chain, aminoacyl group, volcanic setting, vertical evolution, endosymbiotic relationship, pyrophosphate bond, selective optimization, prebiotic conditions, protonmotive force, inorganic pyrophosphate, prebiotic chemistry, emerging life, lateral gene transfer, proton potential, frozen accident, early chemistry Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
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hypothetical multimers, biosynthetic reductions, mineral donor, dehydrating condensation, selective bottleneck, primitive phagocyte, cosmic chemistry, pyrophosphoryl group, nucleotidyl transfer, glycolytic chain, aminoacyl group, volcanic setting, vertical evolution, endosymbiotic relationship, pyrophosphate bond, selective optimization, prebiotic conditions, protonmotive force, inorganic pyrophosphate, prebiotic chemistry, emerging life, lateral gene transfer, proton potential, frozen accident, early chemistry Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Conway Morris, Lynn Margulis New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 14
books:
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- A Guided Tour Of The Living Cell - Volume One (Scientific American Library Series) (v. 1) by Christian de Duve in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Back Matter
- Early Life on Earth by Stefan Bengtson in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Biochemistry of Inorganic Polyphosphates by Igor S. Kulaev in Back Matter
- Powers of Ten (Revised) (Scientific American Library Paperback) by Philip Morrison in Front Matter
- The Archaebacteria: Biochemistry and Biotechnology (Biochemical Society Symposia) by Michael J. Danson in Back Matter
See all 14 books this book cites
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