What Is Life?: Five Great Ideas in Biology

by Paul Nurse

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Approaching his posed question with an enthusiastic elegance, an accessible rigor with a touch of playfulness, the Nobel prize-winning geneticist ushers us, step by step, to and through this most fundamental question about the nature of life on earth — as well as a nod to what might make “life” on another planet.

The Nobel Prize–winning scientist’s elegant explanation of the fundamental ideas in biology and their uses today.

The renowned biologist Paul Nurse has spent his career revealing how living cells work. In What Is Life?, he takes up the challenge of describing what it means to be alive in a way that every reader can understand.

It is a shared journey of discovery; step-by-step Nurse illuminates five great ideas that underpin biology—the Cell, the Gene, Evolution by Natural Selection, Life as Chemistry, and Life as Information. He introduces the scientists who made the most important advances, and, using his personal experiences in and out of the lab, he shares with us the challenges, the lucky breaks, and the thrilling eureka moments of discovery.

Nurse writes with delight at life’s richness and with a sense of the urgent role of biology in our time. To survive the challenges that face us all today—climate change, pandemic, loss of biodiversity and food security—it is vital that we all understand what life is.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393541151
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/02/2021
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	313,082
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Sir Paul Nurse is director of the Francis Crick Institute in London. He previously served as president of Rockefeller University, president of the Royal Society, and trustee of the British Museum. He is a recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 The Cell Biology's Atom 5

2 The Gene The Test of Time 15

3 Evolution by Natural Selection Chance and Necessity 39

4 Life as Chemistry Order from Chaos 55

5 Life as Information Working as a Whole 81

Changing the World 109

What Is Life? 127

Acknowledgements 145

Editorial Reviews

11/23/2020

Nobel Prize–winning geneticist Nurse takes a look at what makes up life in this eloquent introduction to biology. Nurse begins at the level of the cell, then works through genetics and natural selection, building toward descriptions of “life as chemistry” and “life as information.” Along the way, he describes cell theory (the idea that “everything that is alive on the planet is either a cell or made up from a collection of cells”), Gregor Mendel’s 19th-century experiments in plant breeding that led to the modern understanding of genetics, and how gene regulation allows for different life stages (a “formless embryo” growing into a “fully formed human being,” for example). Nurse’s love for the scientific method is evident throughout, as in his writing on Mendel’s research (no “plant breeders before him had taken such a rigorous, extensive quantitative approach”) and his enthusiastic explanations of his own laboratory work (“I cannot stress enough how satisfying it was to work all this out,” he writes). Though the penultimate chapter, “Changing the World,” feels out of place, as it switches from eloquent explanations to a more confrontational tone, Nurse has a knack for presenting biological ideas in precise, accessible language. Anyone wondering how life works would do well to pick this up. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"A nearly perfect guide to the wonder and complexity of existence."

Bill Bryson

"Paul Nurse is about as distinguished a scientist as there could be. He is also a great communicator. This book explains, in a way that is both clear and elegant, how the processes of life unfold, and does as much as science can to answer the question posed by the title. It’s also profoundly important, at a time when the world is connected so closely that any new illness can sweep from nation to nation with immense speed, that all of us—including politicians—should be as well informed as possible. This book provides the sort of clarity and understanding that could save many thousands of lives."

Philip Pullman

"In this vibrant, lively book, Paul Nurse, discoverer of some of the crucial genes that control the division of cells, takes a deep dive into biology by illuminating five of the essential characteristics of ‘life.’ The writing is so spirited and knowledgeable—and the five sections so full of wondrous revelations—that I could not put it down. This is a book that will inspire a generation of biologists."

Siddhartha Mukherjee

"A beautifully written exploration of perhaps the most important question in science."

Brian Cox

"Wise, visionary, and personal. I read the book in one sitting, and felt exhilarated by the end, as though I’d run for miles—from the author's own garden into the interior of the cell, back in time to humankind’s most distant ancestors, and through the laboratory of a dedicated scientist at work on what he most loves to do."

Dava Sobel

09/01/2020

In The Genome Odyssey, Stanford professor Ashley, who led the team that carried out the first medical interpretation of a human genome, explains how genome sequencing will help us prevent and treat disease (60,000-copy first printing). A University of Texas professor frequently seen in the media—Buzzfeed calls her "the new, cooler Bill Nye"—Biberdorf reveals all about her favorite subject in Chemistry on Fire. In Flight of the Diamond Smugglers, Frank (Preparing the Ghost) investigates illegal aspects of the South African diamond trade, particularly the use of trained pigeons to smuggle out diamonds as workers whose life span averages 37 years struggle to survive. Nobel Prize winner Nurse, director of the Francis Crick Institute in London, explains biology—and, essentially, What Is Life?—through five key ideas: the cell, the gene, evolution by natural selection, life as chemistry, and life as information. At a crucial time—not just because of COVID-19 but as lung disease rises generally—pulmonologist Stephen's Breath Taking explains the evolutionary beginnings of breathing, the connection between the lungs and the immune system, and new research and treatment of pulmonary disease. Award-winning science journalist White helps award-winning Stanford geneticist Davis—The Puzzle Solver—tell the story of his search for a cure for chronic fatigue syndrome, which deeply afflicts his son (30,000-copy first printing). In Fundamentals, Nobel Prize winner and MIT professor Wilczek, author of the Wall Street Journal column "Wilczek's Universe," argues for a new worldview (beyond the conceptions we carry around from childhood) based on ten principles he elucidates here.

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