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What Is Life?
- How Chemistry Becomes Biology
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
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Seventy years ago, Erwin Schrdinger posed a simple, yet profound, question: What is life?. How could the very existence of such extraordinary chemical systems be understood? This problem has puzzled biologists and physical scientists both before, and ever since. Living things are hugely complex and have unique properties, such as self-maintenance and apparently purposeful behaviour which we do not see in inert matter. So how does chemistry give rise to biology? Did life begin with replicating molecules, and, if so, what could have led the first replicating molecules up such a path? Now, developments in the emerging field of 'systems chemistry' are unlocking the problem. Addy Pross shows how the different kind of stability that operates among replicating entities results in a tendency for certain chemical systems to become more complex and acquire the properties of life. Strikingly, he demonstrates that Darwinian evolution is the biological expression of a deeper and more fundamental chemical principle: the whole story from replicating molecules to complex life is one continuous coherent chemical process governed by a simple definable principle.
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- Narrated by: Tom Hatting
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Join J. Warner Wallace, former atheist, seasoned cold-case detective, and popular national speaker, as he tackles his most important case...with you on the jury! J. Warner examines eight critical pieces of evidence in the "crime scene" of the universe to determine if they point to a Divine Intruder. If you have ever wondered if something (or someone) outside the natural realm created the universe and everything in it, this is the case for you.
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Rich with information and a unique perspective
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Mind and Cosmos
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- By: Thomas Nagel
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 3 hrs and 45 mins
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The modern materialist approach to life has conspicuously failed to explain such central mind-related features of our world as consciousness, intentionality, meaning, and value. This failure to account for something so integral to nature as mind, argues philosopher Thomas Nagel, is a major problem, threatening to unravel the entire naturalistic world picture, extending to biology, evolutionary theory, and cosmology. Since minds are features of biological systems that have developed through evolution, the standard materialist version of evolutionary biology is fundamentally incomplete.
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Intellectual honesty at its finest
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By: Thomas Nagel
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Is God a Mathematician?
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Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner once wondered about "the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" in the formulation of the laws of nature. Is God a Mathematician? investigates why mathematics is as powerful as it is. From ancient times to the present, scientists and philosophers have marveled at how such a seemingly abstract discipline could so perfectly explain the natural world. More than that - mathematics has often made predictions, for example, about subatomic particles or cosmic phenomena that were unknown at the time, but later were proven to be true.
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Origins of Mathematics
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K. Eric Drexler is the founding father of nanotechnology - the science of engineering on a molecular level. In Radical Abundance, he shows how rapid scientific progress is about to change our world. Thanks to atomically precise manufacturing, we will soon have the power to produce radically more of what people want, and at a lower cost. The result will shake the very foundations of our economy and environment.
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Drexler Rehashes the Past
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What is life? Humans have been asking this question for thousands of years. But as technology has advanced and our understanding of biology has deepened, the answer has evolved. For decades, scientists have been exploring the limits of nature by modifying and manipulating DNA, cells, and whole organisms to create new ones that could never have previously existed on their own.
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The Goldilocks book on what is life
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By: Adam Rutherford
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Freedom Evolves
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Can there be freedom and free will in a deterministic world? Renowned philosopher Daniel Dennett emphatically answers "yes!" Using an array of provocative formulations, Dennett sets out to show how we alone among the animals have evolved minds that give us free will and morality. Weaving a richly detailed narrative, Dennett explains in a series of strikingly original arguments - drawing upon evolutionary biology, cognitive neuroscience, economics, and philosophy - that far from being an enemy of traditional explorations of freedom, morality, and meaning, the evolutionary perspective can be an indispensable ally.
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I knew I was going to like this book
- By Gary on 05-30-14
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The Equations of Life
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- Narrated by: Ian Porter
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In The Equations of Life, biologist Charles S. Cockell makes the forceful argument that the laws of physics narrowly constrain how life can evolve, making evolution's outcomes predictable. If we were to find something very much like a lady bug eating something very much like an aphid on a distant planet, we shouldn't be surprised. The forms of life are guided by a limited set of rules, and, as a result, there is a narrow set of solutions to the challenges of existence.
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Too many equations, not enough insights
- By Alec Drumm on 09-24-18
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Knocking on Heaven's Door
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The latest developments in physics have the potential to radically revise our understanding of the world: its makeup, its evolution, and the fundamental forces that drive its operation. Knocking on Heaven's Door is an exhilarating and accessible overview of these developments and an impassioned argument for the significance of science. There could be no better guide than Lisa Randall.
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Too Political
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The Story of Western Science
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Far too often, public discussion of science is carried out by journalists, voters, and politicians who have received their science secondhand. The Story of Western Science shows us the joy and importance of reading groundbreaking science writing for ourselves and guides us back to the masterpieces that have changed the way we think about our world, our cosmos, and ourselves.
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Good text, tedious book structure
- By Diane K. on 10-07-15
By: Susan Wise Bauer
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What listeners say about What Is Life?
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Charley Yeager
- 06-26-15
Very capable theory of life developed here.
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Absolutely, if you're very interested in life origin that is. It was a slow boil with the last two chapters carrying the best content.
Which scene was your favorite?
I was constantly impressed to learn how much has been discovered about the replicating behavior of DNA.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The winding explanation of the difficult (to me) concept of dynamic stability which is responsible for the increasing complexity in living systems was gratifying and very substantive.
Any additional comments?
This book feels current and far ahead of any thing I had previously learned about the subject.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Daniel Crumbo
- 08-22-15
Smart idea, poorly expressed
Important and thought-provoking thesis, but the prose is turgid and self-indulgent. Needs editor or probably a co-author.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 04-19-18
excellent book, make's me want to read it again.
there's so much information on everything single topic of life imaginable, in love with this book.
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1 person found this helpful
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- J. Barna
- 10-14-17
An accessible layman’s into to molecular biology
This is an accessible layman’s into to molecular biology with excellent examples opening up life’s mysterious roots in the emergence of order from the “molecular storm.“
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- Aaron Bonn
- 08-15-15
What are the chances?
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes.
Have you listened to any of Derek Perkins’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I don't believe I have but would again. I was pleased with his work.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I didn't really have any 'extreme' reactions to the book.
Any additional comments?
I'm one of those persons that always believed that extraterrestrial life in all forms is far more likely than not likely. After listening to the facts that this book puts fourth I understand more now how so many circumstances must come together for this to work. But since it did happen in the past (i'm here) it still can happen. I hope so. I don't want us to be alone in the universe.
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- chetyarbrough.blog
- 08-21-15
CHEMISTRY OF LIFE
The chemistry of life takes on new meaning in the book, “What is Life?”. Chemistry professor and author Addy Pross argues that two RNA strands meet in a primordial swamp, replicate themselves and, over time, create the complexity of life. Pross believes the origin of life can be explained and scientifically proven by “systems chemistry”. Pross chooses to classify his explanation as “ahistorical” for two reasons. One, it is historically and therefore scientifically impossible to recreate the environment of life’s origin. (This is a true statement of any historical event but particularly a history that goes back 4.5 billion years.) And two, there is no way of knowing the location of life’s beginnings. If one cannot recreate or locate, Pross chooses to speculate. In fairness, Pross supports his speculation with some chemical science experiments that reinforce his belief.
Pross uses everyday examples to help explain a chemical theory of the origin of life. For a non-scientist, Pross artfully explains his belief in the origin of life. One might think–so what?
Pross is saying biology is merely a subset of chemistry. For one thing, his view of chemistry opens a field of research that offers a first stage event (two strands of a duplicating and metabolizing factoid) that could create artificial intelligence that competes with a life we think we know. Whether it is correct or not remains for others to prove. Pross, like all adherents of science has supporters and detractors. (For a critical analysis see Dutch biologist–Gert Korthof’s publication dated 10/6/14.)
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- Max Osterhaus
- 08-21-15
Great popular-ish science book!
This is one of the best of the popular science books that I've read (and I read a lot of them!). Just enough background to get most people oriented (first chapters are rather basic), but going pretty deep into some more technical systems and ideas later on.
The greatest thing about the book is the noble restraint used in not getting super "humanistic" like many of these books do. The author did not seem to feel super obligated to defend how this view maintains our morality or other human characteristics that some science authors so often do.
One complaint from a philosophically minded person, is that, as is also often the case in theses discussions, the terms "we" or "you" are used wantonly, making a rather blatant equivocation between the human entity and the individual's concept of self. This problem creates all sorts of false paradoxes that we really shouldn't be dealing with at this stage in the dialog.
Great book though and nice summation of the incremental movement toward a more useable concept of life and of evolution.
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- cornell h. scott
- 07-27-16
Enlightening lecture
The narrator was captivating, the material intriguing, I hope there's more. Books like this are a continuum to the learning experience.
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- Carmen C. Schofield
- 02-22-23
Interesting explanation of life and the state of biology
A bit heavy slogging for an interested lay person and the reading is a bit flat. Worth the time though
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- William E. Kimberly, Sr.
- 02-06-15
Wow!!!!
Wonderful teacher. Wonderful material. Wonderful reader. Can’t be read while distracted. Be prepared to see the world in a different way!
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5 people found this helpful