The Fifth Miracle: The Search for the Origin and Meaning of Life

by P. C. W. Davies

Hardcover, 1999

Status

Available

Publication

New York, NY : Simon & Schuster, c1999.

Description

This work examines what is perhaps science's ultimate question: the origins of life on earth. Paul Davies presents a series of recent discoveries which are leading to some startling theories about the origins of life on earth. New life forms have been discovered in bizarre habitats: deep underground and under the ocean floor. The conditions thought to be necessary for life have thus been radically revised and this has led to the realization that life could very well exist on other planets hither to thought to be inhospitable. Further, cosmic impacts can transport these rock-dwelling micro-organisms from planet to planet across the solar system and beyond. so life could quite easily travel from earth to other planets. Indeed, life could have arrived on earth from elsewhere.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member jefware
How unlikely is the actual beginning of life. While Davies never advocates deism (or theism for that matter) one is left with a profound sense of wonder on the origin of life. It really is a miracle. I think that the Universe is somehow predisposed to life though some underlying principle that
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we've yet to fully comprehend. If it isn't then the chances of life elsewhere are very slim.
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LibraryThing member yapete
Good review of the curent thinking and research into the orgins of life. Davies is an engaging writer, os this is a good starting point in reading about this enduring mystery.
LibraryThing member PDCRead
An interesting book looking at the very origins of life on earth and explaining the way microbes and bacteria work and how they live in the most extreme of environments. There is a lot on the second law of thermodynamics and how it relates to biological entities. There is a lot on DNA and RNA and
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the way that these can be made from amino acids.

He considers the possibility of life having existing on Mars millions of years ago, and the possibilities that microbes could have been carried from one planet to the other after meteor strikes.

Some of the science was a bit beyond me, but the majority was clear.
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Subjects

Language

Barcode

8860
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