Book ID: CBB228632612

The Equations of Life: How Physics Shapes Evolution (2018)

unapi

Cockell, Charles S. (Author)


Basic Books


Publication Date: 2018
Physical Details: 352 pages
Language: English

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.

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Authors & Contributors
Strien, Marij van
Soler, Lena
Trizio, Emiliano
McGhee, George R.
Woodward, James F.
Tallis, Raymond
Concepts
Determinism
Philosophy of science
Physics
Evolution
Contingency (philosophy)
Biology
Time Periods
21st century
20th century, late
19th century
18th century
Enlightenment
Ancient
Places
Greece
France
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