Seventy years ago, Erwin Schrdinger 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, 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 entities results in a tendency for certain 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 and more fundamental chemical principle: the whole story from
replicating molecules to complex life is one continuous coherent
chemical process governed by a simple definable principle.
The accompanying reference guide is included as a PDF on this disc.
