Editorial Reviews
From Scientific American
The plural of the title is purposeful: Dyson advances the hypothesis that life had a double origin. "Either life began only once, with the functions of replication and metabolism already present in rudimentary form and linked together from the beginning, or life began twice, with two separate kinds of creatures, one kind capable of metabolism without exact replication and the other kind capable of replication without metabolism." He sees reasons to favor the second possibility, with metabolizing creatures appearing first. Dyson is a renowned theoretical physicist (professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.) who offers an "apology for a physicist venturing into biology" by citing physicist Erwin Schrödinger's maxim that "some of us should venture to embark on a synthesis of facts and theories, albeit with second-hand and incomplete knowledge of some of them, and at the risk of making fools of themselves." In this new edition of a book first published in 1985, Dyson builds his argument with characteristic skill and clarity. He views his hypothesis as "useful only insofar as it may suggest new experiments."
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Book Description
This general book starts by surveying theories and experiments concerned with the origin of life; it then gives a sketch of new ideas and experiments by which the gaps in our understanding may be filled. The principal new idea is that a search for chemical models of primitive life which are highly tolerant of errors may result in the recognition of structures which do not involve exact replication of molecules. It is suggested that genes originated later, as parasites infecting an earlier non-replicating fauna. As the word origins in the title implies, the author suggests that we should look carefully at the notion that life began twice, once with cells and later with genes. The book is based on the Tarner lectures, given with the support of Trinity College, Cambridge, to a mixed university audience of educated but not expert listeners. It is therefore written for such a non-specialist reader.
Origins of Life,Freeman J. Dyson,Cambridge University Press,0521309492,Life,Life Sciences - Biology - General,Life Sciences - Biology - Microbiology,Life Sciences - Evolution,Origin,Origin Of Life,Science,Science/Mathematics,Evolution,Science / Philosophy & Social Aspects
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