About Life: Concepts in Modern Biology

by Paul S. Agutter, Denys N. Wheatley

This book uses modern biological knowledge to tackle the question of what distinguishes living organisms from the non-living world. The authors first draw on recent advances in cell and molecular biology to develop an account of the living state that applies to all organisms (and only to organisms). This account is then used to explore questions about evolution, the origin of life, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. The novel approach taken by this book to issues in biology will interest and be accessible to both the general reader as well as students and specialists in the field.

Genres: Biology

252 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Air Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main aim for the authors explained in the introduction is to build a definition of what constitutes life as clearly as they can, and on this regard they definitely deliver, building up different features of the cell and how those elements can translate into a definition of livingness, adding examples, references and putting everything in a solid and pleasant way to read.

The late part of the book however, talking about other aspects such as human intelligence and the concept of the mind feels a bit lacking in comparison, since knowledge of this areas is not developed as well, but also because trying to suit their life model into the concept of the mind seems forced and with not enough evidence to make a convincing case. It's still interesting anyway, and did enough to awake my curiosity on the topic.