Book
collections on CD and DVD. A library for the price of a book.
There are few subjects in contemporary science more maddening than the question of life's origin, or origins. Hearkening back to an Earth we would not recognize (a planet in the throes of accretionary formation, with an atmosphere noxious to life as we know it today), there are so many variables and problems with the notion of life spontaneously self-assembling, that this fundamental question has recently taken on a theological cast. As scientists learn more and more about the internal structure of the cell and about the reproductive capacities of the proteins and enzymes that form the building blocks of all living cells, they come closer to being able to replicate life or its early precursors under laboratory conditions. How near are they, and why should we care?
This discipline has expanded dramatically over the last two decades,
and the book is really the collective story of many scientists investigating
properties of life at the various extremes of habitability. It places
such icons of contemporary science reporting as fossil relics in Mars rocks,
endolithic microorganisms, and hydrothermal vent communities in their proper
perspective, and attempts to apply the principles of Darwinian natural
selection to the concept of a primordial terrestrial soup.
This is a very difficult subject to develop for a lay audience, as I
found out when I tried to "sell" a PBS special on the subject to the National
Academy of Sciences a few years ago. The cutting edge science crosses
disciplinary boundaries, and even challenges cherished scientific shibboleths
still clung to by the last generation. These two authors, both university
scientists, have done an admirable job of finding the right level of discourse
to completely describe the subject's complexities without lapsing into
terminological gibberish or, alternatively, over-simplifying.
Dialogue on favorite books with Deane Rink before and during his latest trek to Antarctica, with a note from Bill Ransom and a digression about Frank Herbert (a.k.a Bookbabble 101) -- a very long and rapidly growing document:
Book reviews by Richard SeltzerPublished by B&R Samizdat Express, 33 Gould St., West Roxbury, MA 02132. 617-469-2269 seltzer@samizdat.com
The Readers' Corner and
Writers Showcase
Return to B&R Samizdat Express
Book
collections on CD and DVD. A library for the price of a book.
| Internet Business Showcase: | ||
|
|
|