| Title:
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WHAT IS LIFE?
HOW CHEMISTRY BECOMES BIOLOGY |
| By: |
Addy Pross |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| List price:
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£11.99 |
| Our price: |
£8.75 |
| Discount: |
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£3.24 |
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| ISBN 10: |
0198784791 |
| ISBN 13: |
9780198784791 |
| Availability: |
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days.
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| Stock: |
Currently 4 available |
| Publisher: |
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS |
| Pub. date: |
28 April, 2016 |
| Series: |
Oxford Landmark Science |
| Pages: |
224 |
| Description: |
Seventy years ago, Erwin Schrodinger posed a profound question: 'What is life, and how did it emerge from non-life?' Scientists have puzzled over it ever since. Addy Pross uses insights from the new field of systems chemistry to show how chemistry can become biology, and that Darwinian evolution is the expression of a deeper physical principle. |
| Synopsis: |
Seventy years ago, Erwin Schrodinger posed a profound question: 'What is life, and how did it emerge from non-life?' This problem has puzzled biologists and physical scientists 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? 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 molecules results in a tendency for 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, well-defined chemical concept: the whole story from replicating molecules to complex life is one continuous process governed by an underlying physical principle. The |
| Illustrations: |
10 black and white illustrations |
| Publication: |
UK |
| Imprint: |
Oxford University Press |
| Returns: |
Returnable |
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