Life on the Edge
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4.0 • 3 Ratings
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- £7.99
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
Life is the most extraordinary phenomenon in the known universe; but how does it work? Even in this age of cloning and synthetic biology, the remarkable truth remains: 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 how evolution works, Life on the Edge alters our understanding of life's dynamics. Bringing together first-hand experience of science at the cutting edge with unparalleled gifts of exposition and explanation, Jim Al-Khalili and Johnjoe Macfadden reveal the hitherto missing ingredient to be quantum mechanics and the strange phenomena that lie at the heart of this most mysterious of sciences. Drawing on recent ground-breaking experiments around the world, they show how photosynthesis relies on subatomic particles existing in many places at once, while inside enzymes, those workhorses of life that make every molecule within our cells, particles vanish from one point in space and instantly materialize in another.
Each chapter in Life on the Edge opens with an engaging example that illustrates one of life’s puzzles – How do migrating birds know where to go? How do we really smell the scent of a rose? How do our genes manage to copy themselves with such precision? – and then reveals how quantum mechanics delivers its answer. Guiding the reader through the maze of rapidly unfolding discovery, Al-Khalili and McFadden communicate vividly the excitement of this explosive new field of quantum biology, with its potentially revolutionary applications, and also offer insights into the biggest puzzle of all: what is life? As they brilliantly demonstrate here, life lives on the quantum edge.
Customer Reviews
Life On The Edge
I can only guess that someone at this publishing company decided that an American narrator would provide a more profitable accent, than that of the author? Normally, this is the wisest choice, as many authors are really NOT the best representatives of their own work (though that doesn’t usually stop them). But, Jim Al Khalili, a regular TV and BBC Radio 4 broadcaster, with his relaxed, enthusiastic, animated sing song voice, would have done such a better job, than this competent enough, if not exactly memorable, job, done by Pete Cross. Lose one star, from what would have otherwise have been a 5 Star review.
Without getting bogged down in the history of science, as many books of this type do, this survey of a burgeoning scientific field, is truly fascinating. This is your future; Quantum Biology. It will change all of our lives, and be the thing about which we are all talking, in the coming years.
You are left knowing this, and a little bit more than your friends and family, about the coming age. For those who get excited about the cutting edge, especially when it’s the edges of the things that effect them directly, as they are being cut, this is the book for you.