Author : Paul Davies
What is it about : A comprehensive collection of the latest information in the search of the origin of Life. The Author had gone to great length to define Life - a list and in-depth description of eleven pointers such as Autonomy, Organisation, Complexity, Information Content etc.; taking the readers to the bottom of the oceans where microbes lived happily alongside live volcanoes puking out lava; engaging the readers' imagination in the possibility of life on Mars from observing the erosion patterns on the red planet; entertain us with the thought that we could possibly be descendants from some bacteria from outer space, arriving on Earth from a meteorite.
Some thoughts after
having read the book : Great authors in the field of evolution quite often shared these few traits : engaging, knowledgeable, all-rounders, Generalists with a capital G and very very exhaustive in their quest for a complete mastering of the argument at hand. Our Author here was no exception; the further I was into the book, the more topics were revealed and discussed : cosmology, thermodynamics, protein production, bugs and virus, genetic coding and a good old philosophical debate about Life : was there life afterall, at the very onset of the Big Bang ? What's the chance of finding you (reading this) and me (writing this) on the other side of some distant galaxy ?
Would I recommend this book to you : This book was by no means an easy Sunday morning snooze; more a book for those with a thirst for knowledge and un-bound curiosity about Life. The Readers had better surround themselves with reference books as they read on, as the Author would often explain his tracks of thoughts by going back to basics - thermodynamics, protein, RNA, DNA, Cosmology and the like. At once challenging and at the same time, the Readers are made to work hard. Fun ! Oh, by the way, should you wonder : the title of the book came from Genesis 1.11 " Let The Land Produce Vegetation".
