What is life? : five great ideas in biology / from Nobel Prize winner, Paul Nurse.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nurse, Paul, 1949- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Biology--Philosophy.

Biology.

Life (Biology).

Physical Description:

145 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First American edition.

Other Title:

5 great ideas in biology

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, 2021.

Summary:

"The renowned Nobel Prize-winning scientist's elegant and concise explanation of the fundamental ideas in biology and their uses today. Hailed by Philip Pullman as "a great communicator" who is also "as distinguished a scientist as there could be," Paul Nurse writes with delight at life's richness and a sense of the urgent role of biology in our time. With What Is Life? he delivers a brief but powerful work of popular science in the vein of Carlo Rovelli's Seven Brief Lessons in Physics. Nurse takes readers on a wondrous journey through five fundamental biological ideas-the Cell, the Gene, Evolution by Natural Selection, Life as Chemistry, and Life as Information-introducing the scientists who made the most important advances and taking us into his own lab to give us a sense of the thrill of scientific discovery. In a final chapter, Nurse addresses biology's most pressing ethical issues (including gene-editing, genetic testing, and genetically modified crops), and he concludes with a stirring encomium to biology's role in tackling infectious disease"-- Provided by publisher.

Nurse takes readers on a wondrous journey through five fundamental biological ideas: the cell, the gene, evolution by natural selection, life as chemistry, and life as information. He introduces the scientists who made the most important advances, and takes us into his own lab to give us a sense of the thrill of scientific discovery. He concludes with a stirring encomium to biology's role in tackling infectious disease. -- adapted from jacket

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. The Cell

Biology's Atom

2. The Gene

The Test of Time

3. Evolution By Natural Selection

Chance and Necessity

4. Life As Chemistry

Order from Chaos

5. Life As Information

Working as a Whole.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780393541151

0393541150

OCLC:

1155074754

Publisher Number:

99987420423