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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 570 EAN: 9780520220218 Edition: 1 ISBN: 0520220218 Label: University of California Press Manufacturer: University of California Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 303 Publication Date: August 31, 2000 Publisher: University of California Press Studio: University of California Press Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: Half a century ago, before the discovery of DNA, the Austrian physicist and philosopher Erwin Schrdinger inspired a generation of scientists by rephrasing the fascinating philosophical question: What is life? Using their expansive understanding of recent science to wonderful effect, acclaimed authors Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan revisit this timeless question in a fast-moving, wide-ranging narrative that combines rigorous science with philosophy, history, and poetry. The authors move deftly across a dazzling array of topics-from the dynamics of the bacterial realm, to the connection between sex and death, to theories of spirit and matter. They delve into the origins of life, offering the startling suggestion that life-not just human life-is free to act and has played an unexpectedly large part in its own evolution. Transcending the various formal concepts of life, this captivating book offers a unique overview of life's history, essences, and future. Supplementing the text are stunning illustrations that range from the smallest known organism (Mycoplasma bacteria) to the largest (the biosphere itself). Creatures both strange and familiar enhance the pages of What Is Life? Their existence prompts readers to reconsider preconceptions not only about life but also about their own part in it. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - If you can Only Read OneIf you can Only Read One trade "science" book in your life, this should be the one. It is a slow-motion whirlwind trip into the depths of time and life on planet Earth. Rating: - Savor science presented at its poetic bestThe hardcover edition of this book (What is Life? by Margulis & Sagan) is a treasure in my extensive library. Clever writing and beautiful photographs bring out fascinating ideas. This is a book to be savored. Rating:  - A worthy exploration of a difficult question!Lynn Margulis, as with many popular science writers, tends to get in a little bit of trouble both with her professional peers and with the devotees of her professional peers. Academic disciplines are a bit akin to competing schools of secular theology, with much (if not most) of the difficulty arising from what the layman *thinks* the masters say. Margulis is decidedly *not*, for example, the flaming vitalist or Earth Mother worshipper that some have painted her as (due to her subscription to the ... Read More Rating: - The best of the best.I was totally engrossed with this book and for several weeks it became an appendage. It is filled with awsome facts and enlightenments. My only disappointment was that I am just an animal like all others on this earth and nothing was said concerning what happens to me when fungi take over. I mean "Me". Where do I go? Right now I beleive I just plain die. It makes life a bit harder to face, to think all this is gone when I die. Can anyone recommend a book that will ... Read More Rating: - Beyond biologyI was as enthralled as other reviewers with the amazing facts in this book. My favorite: bacteria don't age; they can die from accidental causes but "programmed death" started with eukaryotes. The authors show that death is necessary for organisms (like us) that practice meiotic cell division. But this book is far more than a random collection of facts. Margulis and her collaborators do an amazing job of assembling an understandable model of life using parts carefully selected from a vast ... Read More 
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