Life Evolving: Molecules, Mind and Meaning

by Christian de Duve

Book Overview

In just a half century, humanity has made an astounding leap in its understanding of life. Now, one of the giants of biological science, Christian de Duve, discusses what we've learned in this half century, ranging from the tiniest cells to the future of our species and of life itself.
With wide-ranging erudition, De Duve takes us on a dazzling tour of the biological world, beginning with the invisible workings of the cell, the area in which...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195156056
• ISBN13: 9780195156058
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Regarding Science-Ejected Vitalism, 2002:

Vitalism is a profoundly science-ejected concept, though many CAM or 'natural health' cabals falsely claim that vitalism survives scientific scrutiny. Some of my favorite quotes in this book by this 1974 Nobel laureate: "until recently, the answer to the question 'what is life?' posed no problem. Life, it was said, is 'animated matter,' from the Latin anima, soul. This, of course, was no explanation at all. It simply attributed to the soul, or vital spirit, all that was not understood about life [...aka] vitalism [p.007...] this notion was first contradicted in 1828 [...per] Wohler [urea...] and it was definitively disproved in 1897 [...per] Buchner [yeast juice... & ] space chemistry has shattered the last refuge[s] of vitalism [p.048...] we know that there is no such thing as a vital principle [p.053]." Science has discarded vitalism for more than 100 years. -r.c.

Interesting and thought provoking book

I read this book because Christian De Duve is one of the "grand old men" of origin-of-life research. What I found was as much a book on theology as one on life sciences. Along with lucid descriptions of the inner workings of living cells and conjectures of how life arose, it is an evangelistic treatise in support of soft-core atheism. His message is that we need priests, not because God exists...He does not...but because natural selection has created within mankind the need for God.De Duve gives a great review of just how cells work at the molecular level. There is adequate depth without getting bogged down in details. What I really wanted to see was his explanation for the origin of life. De Duve proposes that Abundant triphosphates somehow arose to provide energy Prebiotic peptide catalysts somehow aroseMyriads of different RNA-like molecules somehow formed from phosphates"Rare true-RNA" molecules evolved by Darwinian evolutionRNAs began to make proteins out of the abundant amino acid soupThe RNAs began to make cell wallsThe genetic code for specific proteins arose via Darwinian evolutionThese very short RNA chains grew tremendously longer via Darwinian evolutionDNA developed from RNA to form protocellsThe protocells evolved via Darwinian evolution until they became the first living cellsThe key to his proposal is molecular selection. "This mechanism, it must be emphasized, represents at the molecular level exactly that imagined by Darwin to account for biological evolution". In other words, the way to get around the incredible odds of accomplishing each of the proposed steps to life listed above is by having non-living molecules competing with each other. The winning molecules then advance to the next level of competition.De Duve is rather less than kind to those who disagree. He is distressed that many intelligent people, even scientists, do not agree that this is a plausible explanation to the origin of life. As one with a background in the earth sciences, I am one of the skeptics. My major problem is that he seemingly ignores data from other scientific disciplines. His premise depends on assumptions that are either wrong or improbable at best. His proposal requires a benign chemical environment with a rich prebiotic soup from which the peptides, RNAs, and proteins could form. Geochemists and planetary physicists have conclusively demonstrated that this soup simply didn't exist. The neutral atmosphere of the early earth could not form prebiotics. In addition, there was sufficient photogenic oxygen in the atmosphere and radiogenic (radiation-induced) oxygen in the oceans to destroy them if they did form. No "prebiotic soup" has ever been found, although "post-biotics" are extremely common. What does exist in abundance are deposits of poisonous heavy metals and rare-earth elements. The early ocean more closely resembled the deadly effluent from a toxic waste dump than the prebiotic soup De Duve needs. Entire industries exist to mine these mate

Intellectually Engaging

De Duve exhibits an extraordinary skill in conveying his deep knowledge of biology. He again demonstrates that he is both a first-rate scholar and an accomplished popularizer of science. His style does not overshadow the book's content; de Duve moves with equal familiarity and elegance from scientific papers to French poets, never losing his grip on a deterministic description of the history of life. A straightforward story line starts with the origin of life and continues through the evolution of humans, mind, and language. Intertwined with the narrative are the author's thoughts on the willful world of biotechnology and our potential for determining our future as a species. It is not surprising that de Duve's biography of the biosphere includes sweeping generalizations, but his gripping chronicle could have been aided by diagrams and additional illustrations. The author's treatment of issues such as language, consciousness, and the development of pluricellularity may be unsatisfactory to some. And readers interested in the origin and earliest evolution of life would probably prefer more detailed discussions of the RNA world and what may have preceded it.However, evolutionary convergence shows that the history of life is not as contingent as some critics of de Duve's positions would argue. Quite surprisingly, the author does not discuss any cases of molecular convergence in Life Evolving. The small, but very revealing, list of known examples includes the independent development of biosynthetic pathways for molecules such as lysine or the imizadole moiety found in purines and histidine as well as the polyphyletic origin of several nonhomologous classes of nucleic acid polymerases. With only one example of biology (Earth's own) we cannot calculate probabilities, but the search for extraterrestrial life may assist us in evaluating the evolutionary odds of life and consciousness. The idea that life on Earth is the result of a miracle or of a rare chance event has been replaced by an evolutionary narrative. Still, as William Blake wrote in There Is No Natural Religion, "Reason, or the ratio of all we have already known, is not the same that it shall be when we know more." The discovery of dozens of planets orbiting nearby stars and the prospect of searching for compounds of possible biological origin in their atmospheres suggest that in the not-so-distant future we may have more factors to consider when addressing the issues de Duve raises.Whether or not one agrees with de Duve's strong statements, Life Evolving forces the reader to avoid intellectual complacency and to articulate one's own arguments to effectively address his position. These are, in themselves, major reasons to appreciate the book.

Examines how humans have evolved and developed

What is the nature of life and our place in the universe? In Life Evolving, Christian de Duve describes how the first cells may have arisen and evolved, arguing that life was likely to arise and to move more quickly along evolutionary lines than has previously been postulated. He examines how humans have evolved and developed, and shares insights on religion and science along the way. An intriguing account blending a history of life with a survey of where it's heading.