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Life and Energy
LIFE AND ENERGY is a brilliant introduction to the chemistry of life. In this highly lucid guide to the dynamics of modern biology, Isaac Asimov deftly explores the most recent discoveries in this constantly surprising field of inquiry. In the first part, he explains the mechanics of the inanimate world, the significance of energy, work, motion, heat, and chemical reaction. He then uses these concepts in the second half to analyze and explain the latest advances in the study of enzymes, amino acids, proteins and the very processes which constitute life itself. In short, Dr. Asimov's keen examination of biology's current desire to isolate and control the very basis of life--the significance of which promises to revolutionize life itself--becomes a fascinating as well as informative excursion. Illustrated with drawings, charts and diagrams.
- GenresScienceNonfictionBiology
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
15 people are currently reading
200 people want to read
About the author
Isaac Asimov
4,340 books27.7k followersWorks of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles,
The Foundation Trilogy
(1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 30, 2017
i should read book and until i die and i should want that as bad as i want
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 10, 2020
There are explanations of the human evolution based not theurgy. Then there is a manner which depends on scientific explanations that explain progress without theological inference. This book is it.
July 22, 2025
The Meaning of Life
Life and Energy is literally about the meaning of life. That is, in this book Isaac Asimov sets himself the central task of producing a definition of "life". When I read Life and Energy I imagined that this was a central question in biology, one that Serious Biologists thought about. When eventually I myself became a Serious Biologist I discovered that the definition of "life" is not a question Serious Biologists spend much if any time thinking about. We know in great detail what viruses, cells, etc are, so if you give us an unambiguous definition, we can tell you instantly which things satisfy that definition.
I read Life and Energy in 1973, as a junior in high school. I remember this precisely, because I was at the time entering a program that would allow me to skip my senior year of high school and start my first year of college immediately. I had taken high school biology and physics, but never chemistry, so I needed to fix that. I read the textbook used in our high school chemistry course, and I read Life and Energy, which was far more helpful and informative.
Life and Energy is an exceptionally clearly written explanation of thermodynamics and its application to biology. From this I learned that forces push things towards states of low potential energy -- this is essentially the definition of "potential energy" -- although that was not an idea I had ever understood from my high school physics class. Thermodynamics defines a thing called free energy (G = Gibbs free energy, more precisely), and any system of chemical reactions will tend towards the state of lowest free energy. This is a fundamental unifying concept of biochemistry and more generally biology. Thus the definition of life that Asimov eventually arrives at has to do with how living things manipulate energy,
Sadly, the book is out of print. There was at one point a Kindle edition, but that, too, is no longer available. Still, if you have access to a university library, you can probably find it there.
Blog review.
Life and Energy is literally about the meaning of life. That is, in this book Isaac Asimov sets himself the central task of producing a definition of "life". When I read Life and Energy I imagined that this was a central question in biology, one that Serious Biologists thought about. When eventually I myself became a Serious Biologist I discovered that the definition of "life" is not a question Serious Biologists spend much if any time thinking about. We know in great detail what viruses, cells, etc are, so if you give us an unambiguous definition, we can tell you instantly which things satisfy that definition.
I read Life and Energy in 1973, as a junior in high school. I remember this precisely, because I was at the time entering a program that would allow me to skip my senior year of high school and start my first year of college immediately. I had taken high school biology and physics, but never chemistry, so I needed to fix that. I read the textbook used in our high school chemistry course, and I read Life and Energy, which was far more helpful and informative.
Life and Energy is an exceptionally clearly written explanation of thermodynamics and its application to biology. From this I learned that forces push things towards states of low potential energy -- this is essentially the definition of "potential energy" -- although that was not an idea I had ever understood from my high school physics class. Thermodynamics defines a thing called free energy (G = Gibbs free energy, more precisely), and any system of chemical reactions will tend towards the state of lowest free energy. This is a fundamental unifying concept of biochemistry and more generally biology. Thus the definition of life that Asimov eventually arrives at has to do with how living things manipulate energy,
Sadly, the book is out of print. There was at one point a Kindle edition, but that, too, is no longer available. Still, if you have access to a university library, you can probably find it there.
Blog review.
September 5, 2015
I picked up this book from my wife's grandfather's bookshelf, not having a clue what it might be, but knowing he generally had good taste. What I found was something surprising. I think this is a little gem of a book, if a product of its time. It's not the funnest read ever, but it's got great facts and an infectious spirit of wonder at life to it. ---I say it's a product of its time simply because our scientific understanding has clearly progressed since its writing.
I love that Asimov starts with the basic premise that life is what makes an effort, what decreases entropy as best it can, or (I extrapolate), what builds up in a universe that always trends towards breaking apart. There is something really beautiful and impossibly analogy-prone about this conception.
Like a bio/chem textbook in prose format, this progresses through the basic concepts you need to understand how life exists, culminating in (by then) riveting discussions of the wonder that is ATP, the Krebs cycle, photosynthesis, and food chains.
Having just read an Einstein biography, this book really made me appreciate the formulation of quantum mechanics!! I remember learning about atomic orbitals as quantum mechanics in high school chemistry and being let down, because "quantum mechanics" just sounds so riveting and badass. Since then, I often think about quantum mechanics as it pertains to theories about the nature of the universe, "spooky action at a distance," and so forth. But without the fundamental realization of light quanta and the idea of electrons having discrete (not continuous) energy levels, and the orbitals that rise from that idea, we never would have understood the basic nature of atomic bonding, fundamental to chemistry and to an understanding of so many other things. I think this book, placing that information in a progression of things to understand (far from the endpoint), really made me appreciate that.
TL;DR: lots of science in prose, not a thrilling read but thorough, clear, and with a spirit of wonder that leaves you equally rapt contemplating life and energy.
I love that Asimov starts with the basic premise that life is what makes an effort, what decreases entropy as best it can, or (I extrapolate), what builds up in a universe that always trends towards breaking apart. There is something really beautiful and impossibly analogy-prone about this conception.
Like a bio/chem textbook in prose format, this progresses through the basic concepts you need to understand how life exists, culminating in (by then) riveting discussions of the wonder that is ATP, the Krebs cycle, photosynthesis, and food chains.
Having just read an Einstein biography, this book really made me appreciate the formulation of quantum mechanics!! I remember learning about atomic orbitals as quantum mechanics in high school chemistry and being let down, because "quantum mechanics" just sounds so riveting and badass. Since then, I often think about quantum mechanics as it pertains to theories about the nature of the universe, "spooky action at a distance," and so forth. But without the fundamental realization of light quanta and the idea of electrons having discrete (not continuous) energy levels, and the orbitals that rise from that idea, we never would have understood the basic nature of atomic bonding, fundamental to chemistry and to an understanding of so many other things. I think this book, placing that information in a progression of things to understand (far from the endpoint), really made me appreciate that.
TL;DR: lots of science in prose, not a thrilling read but thorough, clear, and with a spirit of wonder that leaves you equally rapt contemplating life and energy.
February 28, 2010
An excellent overview of biochemistry. Entropy! Enzyme catalyzed reactions! The Krebs cycle!
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews