$7.49
Details
A World Beyond Physics: The Emergence and Evolution of Life
Author: Stuart A. Kauffman
Narrator: Bob Souer
Unabridged: 3 hr 44 min
Format: Digital Audiobook
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Published: 10/08/2019
Synopsis
Among the estimated one hundred billion solar systems in the known universe, evolving life is surely abundant. That evolution is a process of "becoming" in each case. Since Newton, we have turned to physics to assess reality. But physics alone cannot tell us where we came from, how we arrived, and why our world has evolved past the point of unicellular organisms to an extremely complex biosphere. Building on concepts from his work at the Santa Fe Institute, Kauffman focuses in particular on the idea of cells constructing themselves and introduces concepts such as "constraint closure." Living systems are defined by the concept of "organization" which has not been focused on in enough in previous works. Cells are autopoetic systems that build themselves: they literally construct their own constraints on the release of energy into a few degrees of freedom that constitutes the very thermodynamic work by which they build their own self creating constraints. Living cells are "machines" that construct and assemble their own working parts. The emergence of such systems-the origin of life problem-was probably a spontaneous phase transition to self-reproduction in complex enough prebiotic systems. The resulting protocells were capable of Darwin's heritable variation, hence open-ended evolution by natural selection.
by Eberhard O. Voit
Systems biology came about as growing numbers of engineers and scientists from other fields created algorithms which supported the analysis of biological data in incredible quantities. Whereas biologists of the past had been forced to study one item...
Published: 06/10/2020
by Lewis Thomas
Lewis Thomass fascinating observations of the quirkiness of the worlds lifeforms cause the listener to ponder simultaneously a tiny organism and the workings of the cosmos. In one chapter he examines the medusa jellyfish and a sea slug, mutually par...
Published: 01/08/2008
by Eugene Marais
The Soul of the White Ant by Eugene Marais is a passionate, insightful account into the world of termites. It is a meticulously researched expose of their complex, highly structured community life.Originally translated into English in 1937, the...
Published: 11/11/2018
by Seeker
Sex- it's not just for humans! Dive into this wacky but scientific exploration of all things sex. Get answers to all of the random questions you might never have thought to ask yourself: • How did dinosaurs have sex millions of years ago? &bull...
Published: 03/16/2021
by David C. Catling
Astrobiology is an exciting new subject, and one, arguably, more interdisciplinary than any other. Astrobiologists seek to understand the origin and evolution of life on Earth in order to illuminate and guide the search for life on other planets. In...
Published: 06/01/2021
by Introbooks Team
Microbiology, along with mathematics, chemistry, and physics, is one of the fundamental branches of basic sciences. The knowledge and detailed study of microorganisms and their functions can establish its use in a variety of applications, from medic...
Published: 04/08/2016
by Matthew Cobb
Our sense of smell—or olfaction as it is technically known—is our most enigmatic sense. It can conjure up memories, taking us back to very specific places and emotions, whilst powerful smells can induce strong feelings of hunger or nause...
Published: 07/31/2020
by IntroBooks
The fundamentals of biology beam its searchlight on all the basic principles contained in various aspects of life sciences, like recombinant DNA, genetics, molecular biology and biochemistry. Via the in-depth study of these principles, humans can ad...
Published: 05/20/2019
by Scientific American
For going on two decades, Scientific American’s “Ask the Experts” column has been answering reader questions on all fields of science. We’ve taken your questions from the basic to the esoteric and reached out to top scientist...
Published: 10/06/2020