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professor_x's review against another edition
4.0
What does it mean to be alive? What constitutes life? In Life's Edge Zimmerman provides different examples that may shed some light on these profound questions. Take the hardy tardigrade for example. These microscopic creatures will enter a near-death hibernation called cryptobiosis, and can stay in this state for very long periods. Add a drop of water and they will spring to life. If a human died of dehydration, you can bet that dumping a bucket of water onto the cadaver won't help reinvigorate it.
Take water from a nearby pond and examine it under a microscope. Looking into the viewer, you may be surprised to see an explosion of minute organisms swimming around. These critters must live such fleeting lives. If the pond dries up, they are wiped from existence. I remember Neil DeGrasse Tyson in Cosmos discussing the evanescent life of microorganisms in a single dew drop. The sun rises, life evaporates into thin air.
I will be forever in gratitude to science, for keeping that brittle flower of child-like wonder and curiosity healthy and well watered. I often will find an ant scurrying along a sidewalk, and I will study it, watching it move to and fro. The realization hits me like a brick every time -- it is alive. The birds flying overhead are alive. The earthworms slithering out of the wet soil are alive. In a way, Earth is alive, with its tectonic plates crashing, volcanoes erupting, hurricanes blowing furiously.
We are surrounded by life. It's important to stop and look once in a while. It is food for the soul.
Take water from a nearby pond and examine it under a microscope. Looking into the viewer, you may be surprised to see an explosion of minute organisms swimming around. These critters must live such fleeting lives. If the pond dries up, they are wiped from existence. I remember Neil DeGrasse Tyson in Cosmos discussing the evanescent life of microorganisms in a single dew drop. The sun rises, life evaporates into thin air.
I will be forever in gratitude to science, for keeping that brittle flower of child-like wonder and curiosity healthy and well watered. I often will find an ant scurrying along a sidewalk, and I will study it, watching it move to and fro. The realization hits me like a brick every time -- it is alive. The birds flying overhead are alive. The earthworms slithering out of the wet soil are alive. In a way, Earth is alive, with its tectonic plates crashing, volcanoes erupting, hurricanes blowing furiously.
We are surrounded by life. It's important to stop and look once in a while. It is food for the soul.
amarti's review
5.0
Zimmer is a gifted explainer of some of the most complex topics in science: RNA, DNA, microbiome, viruses, etc. He does so by weaving in stories of discovery, oddities, and failures.
Central to all of these topics is one question:
What does it mean to be alive?
A seemingly easy question that is actually endlessly complex.
Again and again, Zimmer shares an oddity on the edge of our definition of life. Example: Scientists are growing tiny brains in test tubes. Are those considered living things? How about a tardigrade? These microscopic manatee-like creatures which when dead and dried, are seemingly resurrected when water is added. Or the slime mold, a blob that decides where to grow and what to eat; all without a brain.
Life is made of layers, each full of its own complexities and wonders. From the living creature to the cell to the molecule: As you go deeper, new discoveries and mysteries await.
Central to all of these topics is one question:
What does it mean to be alive?
A seemingly easy question that is actually endlessly complex.
Again and again, Zimmer shares an oddity on the edge of our definition of life. Example: Scientists are growing tiny brains in test tubes. Are those considered living things? How about a tardigrade? These microscopic manatee-like creatures which when dead and dried, are seemingly resurrected when water is added. Or the slime mold, a blob that decides where to grow and what to eat; all without a brain.
Life is made of layers, each full of its own complexities and wonders. From the living creature to the cell to the molecule: As you go deeper, new discoveries and mysteries await.
daivatpbhatt's review
4.0
Good book. Atleast now I can say "Its complicated, and I don't know the answer" to one more question in life.
bookish_calirican's review
I may come back to it. Just wasn't speaking to me at the moment.
smokeyshouse's review
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
A wonderful series of essays examining how people have struggled to define and understand what life is... along the way, examining life at the fringes. Engaging writing.