Life on the edge
Life is the most extraordinary phenomenon in the known universe; but how does it work? It is remarkable that in this age of cloning and even synthetic biology, nobody has ever made anything living entirely out of dead material. Life remains the only way to make life. Are we missing a vital ingredient in its creation? Like Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene which provided a new perspective on evolution by shifting the focus of natural selection from organisms to genes, Life On The Edge alters our understanding of life from cells or biomolecules to the fundamental particles that drive life's dynamics. From this new perspective, life makes more sense as its missing ingredient is revealed to be quantum mechanics and the strange phenomena that lie at the heart of this most mysterious of sciences.
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- There is a whole genre of these, starting with (as mentioned in the paper's introduction) "What is Life?" by Schrodinger. I've been idly working my way through a bunch of them, including Monod's "Chance and Necessity" (dated but excellent), Nick Lane's whole series of books (notably "The Vital Question"), Nurse's "What is Life?" (good if you want to learn about yeast), Zimmer's "Life's Edge" (haven't finished it yet, seems good). Honestly, the details change, and the emphasis of each author, but they are all speculative and hand-wavey. Pre-paradigmatic. My favorite quote is from "Life on the Edge" by McFadden and Al-Khalili:
"Biologists cannot even agree on a unique definition of life itself; but that hasn’t stopped them from unraveling aspects of the cell, the double helix, photosynthesis, enzymes and a host of other living phenomena"
- If you liked this story, I recommend you "Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology".
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Edge-Coming-Quantum-Biology/dp/0...
- "Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology," by Johnjoe McFadden is a great book for history and details on these topics. The author does a very good job explaining alien theories to curious layfolk.
- More discussion in "Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology." I can't recommend the book unreservedly, but it's worth checking out reviews.
- Several writers have argued that Life is just what biologists study, which sounds circular but is really saying the subject is more interesting than the definition.
From “Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology”:
Indeed, it is our view that the quest to understand this strangest of biological phenomena is often hindered by a persnickety insistence on defining it. Biologists cannot even agree on a unique definition of life itself; but that hasn’t stopped them from unraveling aspects of the cell, the double helix, photosynthesis, enzymes and a host of other living phenomena…
- From “Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology”:
Biologists cannot even agree on a unique definition of life itself; but that hasn’t stopped them from unraveling aspects of the cell, the double helix, photosynthesis, enzymes and a host of other living phenomena…
