Life on Earth arose nearly 4 billion
years ago, bursting forth from air,
water, and rock. Though the process
obeyed all the rules of chemistry and
physics, the details of that original
event pose as deep a mystery as any
facing science. How did non-living
chemicals become alive? While the
question is (deceivingly) simple, the
answers are unquestionably complex.
Science inevitably plays a key role in any discussion of life's origins, dealing less
with the question of why life appeared on Earth than with where, when, and
how it emerged on the blasted, barren face of our primitive planet.
Astrobiologist Robert Hazen has spent many years dealing with the fundamental
questions of life's genesis. As an active research scientist, he is down
deep in all the messy details that science has to offer on the subject, tracing the
inexorable sequence of events that led to the complicated interactions of carbonbased
molecules. As he takes us through the astounding process of emergence,
we are witness to the first tentative steps toward life—from the unfathomable
abundance of carbon biomolecules synthesized in the black vacuum of space to
the surface of the Earth to deep within our planet's restless crust. We are privy
to the breathtaking drama that rapidly unfolds as life prevails.
The theory of emergence is poised to answer a multitude of questions—even
as it raises the possibility that natural processes exist beyond what we now
know, perhaps beyond what we even comprehend. Genesis tells the tale of
transforming scientific advances in our quest for life's origins. Written with
grace, beauty, and authority, it goes directly to the heart of who we are and
why we are here.
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