The Rainbow and the Worm

This highly unusual book began as a serious inquiry into Schrödinger's question, “What is life?”, and as a celebration of life itself. It takes the reader on a voyage of discovery through many areas of contemporary physics, from non-equilibrium thermodynamics and quantum optics to liquid crystals and fractals, all necessary for illuminating the problem of life. In the process, the reader is treated to a rare and exquisite view of the organism, gaining novel insights not only into the physics, but also into “the poetry and meaning of being alive.”

This much-enlarged third edition includes new findings on the central role of biological water in organizing living processes; it also completes the author's novel theory of the organism and its applications in ecology, physiology and brain science.
Contents:What Is It to Be Alive?Do Organisms Contravene the Second Law?Can the Second Law Cope with Organized Complexity?Energy Flow and Living CyclesHow to Catch a Falling ElectronTowards a Thermodynamics of Organised ComplexitySustainable Systems as OrganismsThe Seventy-Three Octaves of Nature's MusicCoherent Excitations of the Body ElectricThe Solid-State Cell'Life is a Little Electric Current'How Coherent Is the Organism? The Heartbeat of HealthHow Coherent Is the Organism? Sensitivity to Weak Electromagnetic FieldsLife is All the Colors of the Rainbow in a WormThe Liquid Crystalline OrganismCrystal ConsciousnessLiquid Crystalline WaterQuantum Entanglement and CoherenceIgnorance of the External ObserverTime and Freewill
Readership: Sixth-form and undergraduate students in physics and biology; biophysics, biochemistry and quantum mechanics undergraduates.