Rainbow and the Worm, The: The Physics of Organisms (3rd Edition)

by Me-Wan Ho and Mae-Wan Ho

Book Overview

This highly unusual book began as a serious inquiry into Schr dinger's question, "What is life?", and as a celebration of life itself. It takes the reader on a voyage of discovery through many areas of contemporary physics, from non-equilibrium thermodynamics and quantum optics to liquid crystals and fractals, all necessary for illuminating the problem of life. In the process, the reader is treated to a rare and exquisite view of the organism, gaining...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9812832602
• ISBN13: 9789812832603
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company
• Length: 408 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

The Physics of Physiology

The slim black chrysalis of edition 1 (1993) has blossomed into a radically changed edition 3 (2007)that may offer a unique preview of how our understanding of LIFE will change. The author weaves together a broad understanding of physiology, chemistry, physics and Quantum Mechanics to reveal a picture of life that answers a number of unsolved questions: how does the live cell, in contrast to the inanimate world, capture, store, and modulate the release of electrons of energy derived from solar photons. Is the living cell a mix of dissolved proteins, or a solid state electronically active environment in which physical structure, rather than enzymes and messenger proteins, are dominant. Why are cell phones potentially dangerous, or how do magnets produce anatomical distortion? If you find the first several chapters hard going, persevere, it will become exciting as new understandings are revealed. I suggest that here is a landmark book that should become a required text for a number of scientific disciplines.

what is conscious life

In a way I am not competent to hold a view on this book. I only understand the first three and the last chapter. The chapters in between require more scientific knowledge than I have. Still, I strongly recommend reading this book; even if is only to read the final chapter. The book is written by a prominent scientist to find the answer to: what is life? especially life of human beings. The last chapter "time and free will" is an eye opener. For example: we have two selves, an internal one and an external one. The external one consists of all the relationships we have with others. Obvious once you realize this. The self is not doomed to fight others for survival as some people interpret Darwinism. On the contrary sustaining others makes the inner self stronger. The self and others are completely intertwined. Another example. The final summary: What is reality? "Reality is thus a shimmering presence of infinite planes, a luminous labyrinth of the active now connecting "past" and "future", "real" with "ideal", where potential unfolds into actual and actual enfolds further potential through the free action and intention of the organism". The conclusions are remarkably similar to Buddhist concepts. You could even say it is a profound interpretation.

A Great Job in Making Exotic Science More Accessible

This book is more than a review of scientific dicoveries regarding "life" as it places the meaning of life in a new and fresh perspective. Although the application of thermodynamics in biology is not new as this can be dated back to Schrodinger's work in 1945 and Morowitz's in 1970's, Ho's work is more than the extension of these works. Albeit non-equilibrium thermodynamics is essential in explaining life as a dissipative structure, you will be surprised to see that she added something special to this well-established field as far as life is concerned. To me, the most striking features of this work is the incorporation of new discoveries in physics and chemistry in explaining life phenomena. The application of Quantum Theory, Quantum Electrodynamics, and Electromagnetic theories in describing and explaining life is very interesting and intriging and can be considered as a breakthrough in scientific thinking. Another interesting point is its readability. Although, I have to admit that you need to have a good background in science to appreciate this work, Ho's writing style is very informal. The equations are basic and are presented only where necessary. I think she tries her best to simplify most of complex tecnical concepts so that they can be more accessible. I would recommend this book as a popular science book to the readers with technical background. Doy Sundarasaradula March 12th, 2008

Both crazy and great

While Ho pays considerable homage to Erwin Schrodigner's "What Is Life?", The Rainbow and the Worm is better seem as a revision of William James Sidis' brilliant "The Animate and the Inanimate". Much of Ho's reformulation (or reinterpretation really) of the Second Law of Thermodynamics draws directly from the work of Sidis. And, in fact, the central question of What Is Life? related to this underpins both works. While she never addresses Sidis' theory of reversability or positive and negative zones in space, she does explicate Life in the same manner of a. excitability, b. COP > 1, and c. a teleological "half-law" 0 =< Delta S < infinity (with the other half being -inf < dS =< 0). Much as Kant tells us we wear "cause colored glasses", Ho tells us that we wear "entropy colored glasses" so to speak. I actually belive Sidis does a better job of explaining this concept however. She proceeds to recast entropy and the "arrow of time" as decoherence and modernizes Sidis' different rates of time idea (which, incidentally, appears whole in an epsiode of the original Star Trek) as fractal space-time. While she does not address this issue, a continuous but nondifferentiable time is the only solution to Zeno's Paradox as well. Mae-Wan Ho is as much a process philosopher as she is a biophysicist. This is a work that has just as many implications for social science as it does the "hard" sciences, a topic Ho has expounded on at some length in her subsequent work and writings. It is an important point that the social science significance and findings are no less "rigorous" than the physics involved. I suggest reading The Inanimate and the Animate first as well as the works of Henri Louis Bergson (particularly Time and Free Will). Ho wears her influences on her sleeve in this respect, and both men's thinking will be further elucidated by Ho's work as well as simultaneously helping to elucidate her own elaboration. In a word, brilliant; one of the most consequential works of our day. I only wish she had pushed the envelope of Sidis and Bergson even more than she does -- so much remains to be explored and expanded upon.

An excellent discourse on the scientific philosophy of life.

M-W Ho begins this book with the question "What is Life?" and then states that the purpose of the book is to "keep the question alive". I believe he has creatively combined some of the deep intricies of physics (thermodynamics and quantum theory) with some fundemental biologic observations to establish an excellent framework for thinking about the nature of life. His descriptions of thermodynamics and quantum theory depend more on intuition than mathematics, and thus are accessible to non-speacialists. M-W Ho addresses observations in the atomic world, molecular world, cellular world up into the world of consciouness and civilization. This book has provided much "food for thought" concerning the deep issues of "Life" at many levels.