Comments on: Book review – Life’s Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive/2021/09/14/book-review-lifes-edge-the-search-for-what-it-means-to-be-alive/Reviewing fascinating science books since 2017Sat, 08 Feb 2025 19:46:24 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.com/By: Book review – Full Fathom 5000: The Expedition of HMS Challenger and the Strange Animals It Found in the Deep Sea | The Inquisitive Biologist/2021/09/14/book-review-lifes-edge-the-search-for-what-it-means-to-be-alive/comment-page-1/#comment-94988Tue, 06 Aug 2024 15:03:09 +0000/?p=15504#comment-94988[…] furthermore offers interesting asides on science history. One example is the infamous Bathybius haeckeli episode. One of Challenger’s goals was to confirm the existence of a primordial goo, a purported […]

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]]>By: Book review – The Evolutionary Origins of Life and Death | The Inquisitive Biologist/2021/09/14/book-review-lifes-edge-the-search-for-what-it-means-to-be-alive/comment-page-1/#comment-94750Fri, 09 Feb 2024 15:37:36 +0000/?p=15504#comment-94750[…] himself when discussing what life is. Indulge me if you will. Defining life is notoriously hard and its edges are fuzzy. “For philosophers of biology, the origin of life is captured more by the evolutionary […]

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]]>By: Book review – The Biology of Death: How Dying Shapes Cells, Organisms, & Populations | The Inquisitive Biologist/2021/09/14/book-review-lifes-edge-the-search-for-what-it-means-to-be-alive/comment-page-1/#comment-94735Thu, 01 Feb 2024 14:37:26 +0000/?p=15504#comment-94735[…] of life and death, the struggle we have with defining life, and some of the organisms that populate the grey zone between life and non-life. He mentions major causes of death today (with an honourable mention of the mosquito), and what […]

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]]>By: Book review – Viruses: A Natural History | The Inquisitive Biologist/2021/09/14/book-review-lifes-edge-the-search-for-what-it-means-to-be-alive/comment-page-1/#comment-87542Tue, 23 May 2023 11:56:28 +0000/?p=15504#comment-87542[…] viruses are deadly pathogens, they are also a supremely fascinating phenomenon, residing right at the edge of living and non-living matter (even if some argue in favour of considering them alive). Viruses: A Natural History includes a […]

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]]>By: Year list – The Inquisitive Biologist’s top 5 reads of 2021 | The Inquisitive Biologist/2021/09/14/book-review-lifes-edge-the-search-for-what-it-means-to-be-alive/comment-page-1/#comment-38334Fri, 31 Dec 2021 08:42:57 +0000/?p=15504#comment-38334[…] A new book by Carl Zimmer is always reason to be excited. Life’s Edge is a fascinating exploration of the borderlands between the living and non-living world, showing how hard it is to answer the question of what life is.  It also cements Zimmer’s reputation as one of today’s finest science writers. Read more… […]

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]]>By: Book review – A Planet of Viruses (Third Edition) | The Inquisitive Biologist/2021/09/14/book-review-lifes-edge-the-search-for-what-it-means-to-be-alive/comment-page-1/#comment-27998Tue, 14 Sep 2021 13:18:10 +0000/?p=15504#comment-27998[…] these lines are blurred. Consider this essay a taste of things to come in Zimmer’s new book Life’s Edge. And as he did in She Has Her Mother’s Laugh when discussing genetic mosaics, he can implode […]

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