The equations of life : how physics shapes evolution / Charles S. Cockell.
By: Cockell, Charles [author.].
Publisher: New York : Basic Books, ©2018Edition: First edition.Description: x, 337 pages : illustration ; 25 cm.Content type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 9781541617599.Subject(s): Evolution (Biology) -- Philosophy | Physics -- Philosophy | ExobiologyGenre/Form: Print books.Summary: "Any reader of science fiction or viewer of Star Trek will be awake to the dream that there may be life elsewhere in our universe that isn't like life here on Earth. Maybe, like E.T., it has new letters in its genetic alphabet! Maybe it's made of silicon! Maybe it gets around on wheels! Or maybe it doesn't. In The Equations of Life, biologist Charles Cockell makes the surprising argument that the Universe constrains life, making its evolutionary outcomes quite predictable-in short, if we were to find, on some distant planet, something very much like a lady bug eating something very much like an aphid that had itself just been feeding on the sap of something very much like a flower, we shouldn't at all be surprised. Considering the vast pantheon of creatures that have existed on Earth, from pterodactyls to sloths, it is tempting to think that the possibilities for life are limitless, and that a ladybug is a marvelous oddity. But as Cockell reveals, the forms and shapes of life are guided by a limited sets of rules. There is just a narrow set of mathematical solutions to the challenges of existence. Any natural environment usually has multiple challenges to survival in it, each associated to a physical equation"--| Current location | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| On Shelf | QH360.5 .C63 2018 (Browse shelf) | Available | AU00000000013270 |
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| QH353 .A58 2017 The aliens among us : how invasive species are transforming the planet--and ourselves / | QH353 .S56 2013 Invasive species : what everyone needs to know / | QH360.5 .B45 2016 The physics of life : the evolution of everything / | QH360.5 .C63 2018 The equations of life : how physics shapes evolution / | QH361 .T46 2015 A remarkable journey : the story of evolution / | QH365 .O2 2003 The origin of the species by means of natural selection of the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life / | QH366.2 .C733 2017 Synergistic selection : how cooperation has shaped evolution and the rise of humankind / |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
"Any reader of science fiction or viewer of Star Trek will be awake to the dream that there may be life elsewhere in our universe that isn't like life here on Earth. Maybe, like E.T., it has new letters in its genetic alphabet! Maybe it's made of silicon! Maybe it gets around on wheels! Or maybe it doesn't. In The Equations of Life, biologist Charles Cockell makes the surprising argument that the Universe constrains life, making its evolutionary outcomes quite predictable-in short, if we were to find, on some distant planet, something very much like a lady bug eating something very much like an aphid that had itself just been feeding on the sap of something very much like a flower, we shouldn't at all be surprised. Considering the vast pantheon of creatures that have existed on Earth, from pterodactyls to sloths, it is tempting to think that the possibilities for life are limitless, and that a ladybug is a marvelous oddity. But as Cockell reveals, the forms and shapes of life are guided by a limited sets of rules. There is just a narrow set of mathematical solutions to the challenges of existence. Any natural environment usually has multiple challenges to survival in it, each associated to a physical equation"--