Singularities : Landmarks on the Pathways of Life
Editorial Reviews
Review
'... fine, incisive prose. He takes us on a dazzling trip within a cell, providing a beautiful exposition of life's biochemical cycles, their elegance, equilibrium and evolution.' New Scientist
Book Description
Erwin Schrödinger's What is Life? published 60 years ago, influenced much of the development of molecular biology. In this new book Christian De Duve, Nobel Laureate and pioneer of modern cell biology, presents a contemporary response to this classic, providing a sophisticated consideration of the key steps or bottlenecks that constrain the origins and evolution of life. De Duve surveys the entire history of life, including insights into the conditions that may have led to its emergence. He uses as landmarks the many remarkable singularities along the way, such as the single ancestry of all living beings, the universal genetic code, and the monophyletic origin of eukaryotes. The book offers a brief guided tour of biochemistry and phylogeny, from the basic molecular building blocks to the origin of humans. Each successive singularity is introduced in a sequence paralleling the hypothetical development of features and conditions on the primitive earth, explaining how and why each transition to greater complexity occurred.
Singularities: Landmarks on the Pathways of Life,Christian de Duve,Cambridge University Press,052184195X,Evolution (Biology),Life,Life Sciences - Biology - Molecular Biology,Life Sciences - Evolution,Origin,Science,Science/Mathematics,Singularities (Mathematics),Cellular biology,Genetics (non-medical),Science / Molecular Biology
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