What is life? : how chemistry becomes biology / / by Addy Pross

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910818824703321
• Autore: Pross Addy <1945->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Oxford, : Oxford University Press, 2012
• ISBN: 1-283-59747-0; 9786613909923; 0-19-165088-9; 0-19-165089-7
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (215 p.)
• Disciplina: 570.1
• Soggetti: Life (Biology); Biology
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di contenuto: Cover; Contents; Prologue; 1. Living Things are so Very Strange; 2. The Quest for a Theory of Life; 3. Understanding 'Understanding'; 4. Stability and Instability; 5. The Knotty Origin of Life Problem; 6. Biology's Crisis of Identity; 7. Biology is Chemistry; 8. What is Life?; References and Notes; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; Q; R; S; T; V; W; Y
• Sommario/riassunto: Seventy years ago, Erwin Schrödinger 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, deve