A Brief History of Creation: Science and the Search for the Origin of Life
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
The epic story of the scientists through the ages who have sought answers to life’s biggest mystery: How did it begin?
In this essential and illuminating history of Western science, Bill Mesler and H. James Cleaves II seek to answer the most crucial question in science: How did life begin? They trace the trials and triumphs of the iconoclastic scientists who have sought to solve the mystery, from Darwin’s theory of evolution to Crick and Watson’s unveiling of DNA. This fascinating exploration not only examines the origin-of-life question, but also interrogates the very nature of scientific discovery and objectivity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Mesler and chemist Cleaves explore how humans have contemplated life's origins over the millennia, and the authors offer a cogent explanation of the best current thinking on the topic in this broad intellectual history. Because they cover so much ground moving from the Egyptians through the Greeks all the way to the present they are forced to be somewhat superficial. Nonetheless, across the arc of their engaging story they raise some fascinating points. Throughout, they touch on the controversy between religion and science, such as the way that those in the mid-19th century who attempted to demonstrate that spontaneous generation occurred regularly were seen as anti-Christian materialists. Unsurprisingly, significant time is spent on the work of Charles Darwin, but he is unfairly criticized for not fully addressing the issue of the origin of life unfair because that was not the question he was attempting to answer. Yet Mesler and Cleaves recognize that Darwin forever transformed the discussion, since after Darwin, "those who once wondered about the first of each species now wondered about a single first ancestor of all of them." The last chapters take readers on a tour of current research that will both educate and entertain.
