Seven Clues to the Origin of Life: A Scientific Detective Story (Canto) - Softcover

Cairns-Smith, A. G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521398282 ISBN 13: 9780521398282

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1990

Synopsis

This book addresses the question of how life may have arisen on earth, in the spirit of an intriguing detective story. It relies on the methods of Sherlock Holmes, in particular his principle that one should use the most paradoxical features of a case to crack it. This approach to the essential biological problems is not merely light-hearted, but a fascinating scrutiny of some very fundamental questions. 'I know of no other book that succeeds as well as this one in maintaining the central question in focus throughout. It is a summary of the best evolutionary thinking as applied to the origins of life in which the important issues are addressed pertinently, economically and with a happy recourse to creative analogies.' Nature '... a splendid story - and a much more convincing one than the molecular biologists can offer as an alternative. Cairns-Smith has argued his case before in the technical scientific literature, here he sets it out in a way from which anyone - even those whose chemistry and biology stopped at sixteen - can learn.' New Statesman

About this title

Book Description:

The mysteries surrounding the origins of life on earth are written in detective story fashion by a world famous scientist in this popular version of Genetic Takeover, originally published in 1982.

From the Back Cover:

This book addresses the question of how life may have arisen on the earth, in the spirit of an intriguing detective story. It relies on the methods of Sherlock Holmes, in particular his principle that one should use the most paradoxical features of a case to crack it. This approach to the essential biological problems is not merely light-hearted, but a fascinating scrutiny of some very fundamental questions.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0521398282
• ISBN 13: 9780521398282
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144