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What is life? : five great ideas in biology  Cover Image Book Book

What is life? : five great ideas in biology / from Nobel Prize winner, Paul Nurse.

Nurse, Paul, 1949- (author.).

Summary:

"The renowned Nobel Prize-winning scientist's elegant and concise explanation of the fundamental ideas in biology and their uses today. Hailed by Philip Pullman as "a great communicator" who is also "as distinguished a scientist as there could be," Paul Nurse writes with delight at life's richness and a sense of the urgent role of biology in our time. With What Is Life? he delivers a brief but powerful work of popular science in the vein of Carlo Rovelli's Seven Brief Lessons in Physics. Nurse takes readers on a wondrous journey through five fundamental biological ideas-the Cell, the Gene, Evolution by Natural Selection, Life as Chemistry, and Life as Information-introducing the scientists who made the most important advances and taking us into his own lab to give us a sense of the thrill of scientific discovery. In a final chapter, Nurse addresses biology's most pressing ethical issues (including gene-editing, genetic testing, and genetically modified crops), and he concludes with a stirring encomium tobiology's role in tackling infectious disease"-- Provided by publisher.
Nurse takes readers on a wondrous journey through five fundamental biological ideas: the cell, the gene, evolution by natural selection, life as chemistry, and life as information. He introduces the scientists who made the most important advances, and takes us into his own lab to give us a sense of the thrill of scientific discovery. He concludes with a stirring encomium to biology's role in tackling infectious disease. -- adapted from jacket

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780393541151
  • ISBN: 0393541150
  • Physical Description: 145 pages ; 22 cm
  • Edition: First American edition.
  • Publisher: New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, 2021.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
Introduction -- The cell: biology's atom -- The gene: the test of time -- Evolution by natural selection: chance and necessity -- Life as chemistry: order from chaos -- Life as information: working as a whole -- Changing the world -- What is life?
Subject: Biology > Philosophy.
Life (Biology)

Available copies

  • 8 of 8 copies available at Missouri Evergreen. (Show)
  • 1 of 1 copy available at Cass County.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 8 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Cass County Library-Northern Resource Center 570.1 NUR 2021 (Text) 0002205545219 Adult Non-Fiction Available -


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