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The equations of life : how physics shapes evolution / Charles S. Cockell.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Basic Books, [2018]Copyright date: ©2018Edition: First editionDescription: x, 337 pages ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781541617599
  • 1541617592
Subject(s):
Contents:
Life's silent commander -- Organizing the multitudes -- The physics of the ladybug -- All creatures great and small -- Bundles of life -- The edge of life -- The code of life -- Of sandwiches and sulfur -- Water, the liquid of life -- The atoms of life -- Universal biology? -- The laws of life: evolution and physics unified.
Summary: "Why do flocks of geese fly in graceful echelons? Why do animals have legs and not wheels? Why do burrowing moles look the same the world over? In [this book], biologist Charles S. Cockell argues that the laws of physics narrowly constrain how life can evolve. Despite the astounding diversity of living things on the planet, evolution's outcomes are predictable at every level of life's structure, from colonies of ants to the very atoms from which they are made. Yet in this view, we can find a new appreciation for the beautiful simplicity and symmetry of life. In a provocative and captivating journey into the forces and laws that shape the zoo of living things on Earth, Cockell suggests that the unity of physics and biology gives us a new way to unravel the mysteries of life on our own planet and maybe even elsewhere. He shows why alien life forms, if they exist, would look like the creatures we know. With only a narrow set of solutions available to organisms struggling with the challenges of existence, they too would be limited in their chemistry, their forms, and the rules that shape their populations. The profusion of life on Earth can seem mindboggling, but ultimately it may be unexceptional in the universe. A remarkable contribution breathing new life into Darwin's theory of evolution, The Equations of Life is a forceful argument about what life can--and can't--be."--Dust jacket.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 576.801 C666 Available 33111009211885
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A groundbreaking argument for why alien life will evolve to be much like life here on Earth

We are all familiar with the popular idea of strange alien life wildly different from life on earth inhabiting other planets. Maybe it's made of silicon! Maybe it has wheels! Or maybe it doesn't. 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 on a distant planet something very much like a lady bug eating something like an aphid, 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.
A remarkable scientific contribution breathing new life into Darwin's theory of evolution, The Equations of Life makes a radical argument about what life can -- and can't -- be.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-324) and index.

Life's silent commander -- Organizing the multitudes -- The physics of the ladybug -- All creatures great and small -- Bundles of life -- The edge of life -- The code of life -- Of sandwiches and sulfur -- Water, the liquid of life -- The atoms of life -- Universal biology? -- The laws of life: evolution and physics unified.

"Why do flocks of geese fly in graceful echelons? Why do animals have legs and not wheels? Why do burrowing moles look the same the world over? In [this book], biologist Charles S. Cockell argues that the laws of physics narrowly constrain how life can evolve. Despite the astounding diversity of living things on the planet, evolution's outcomes are predictable at every level of life's structure, from colonies of ants to the very atoms from which they are made. Yet in this view, we can find a new appreciation for the beautiful simplicity and symmetry of life. In a provocative and captivating journey into the forces and laws that shape the zoo of living things on Earth, Cockell suggests that the unity of physics and biology gives us a new way to unravel the mysteries of life on our own planet and maybe even elsewhere. He shows why alien life forms, if they exist, would look like the creatures we know. With only a narrow set of solutions available to organisms struggling with the challenges of existence, they too would be limited in their chemistry, their forms, and the rules that shape their populations. The profusion of life on Earth can seem mindboggling, but ultimately it may be unexceptional in the universe. A remarkable contribution breathing new life into Darwin's theory of evolution, The Equations of Life is a forceful argument about what life can--and can't--be."--Dust jacket.

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