Wonders of Life: Exploring the Most Extraordinary Phenomenon in the Universe (Wonders Series): Cox, Brian: 9780062238832: Amazon.com: Books (original) (raw)

Wonders of Life: Exploring the Most Extraordinary Phenomenon in the Universe by Brian Cox and Andrew Cohen

"Wonders of Life" is a fantastic book that complements the Discovery Science Channel series. Professor Brian Cox is at it again but this time he takes us on a global journey of the most unexpected locations to explain the origin of life to our lives. This enlightening, full-color 288-page book is composed of the following five chapters: 1. Home, 2. What Is Life?, 3. Size Matters, 4. Expanding Universe, and 5. Endless Forms Most Beautiful.

Positives:

1. Elegant and passionate prose. Innate ability to make science fun and educational for the masses.

2. The fascinating topic of the life sciences in the hands of a master educator.

3. Great use of charts and illustrations to assist the reader. This book is full of awe-inspiring photos. High production value, I can't stress that enough.

4. In science it's not always about the right answer but asking the right questions. Cox focuses his journey on Schrodinger's 'How' question.

5. In reverence to one of the greatest theories ever, the grand theory of evolution.

6. Thought-provoking questions that guide this wonderful book, as an example: "What is the minimal set of ingredients necessary for life to evolve, and how widespread are these ingredients in the Universe beyond Earth?"

7. A look at the history of water. Fascinating!

8. The evolution of the biological process of oxygenic photosynthesis. Who knew biology could be this much fun?

9. The impact of light...enlightening indeed. "A photon's wavelength is directly related to its colour."

10. Full of fun factoids throughout the book. "A single drop of water contains, on average, a million bacteria."

11. What is life? Find out. A good mix of biology, chemistry and physics to explain such an ambitious question. "Each one of us contains about 50 trillion cells, working together to create the complex structures of the human body."

12. Learning about mitochondria.

13. DNA the blueprint of life...

14. Understanding how size is constrained by the laws of nature; from that largest to the smallest but most importantly, why that is so.

15. How living things learned to experience the world. The evolution of the senses (hearing, seeing, touching). "Throughout this book, we have seen that a powerful route to discovering how organisms evolved certain characteristics is to look for commonalities across radically different forms of life."

16. I would be remiss if I did not include my absolutely favorite discovery, "Darwin's bark spider".

17. Understanding the "stuff" of life. The importance of carbon.

18. The Big Bang Singularity.

19. The building blocks of biology.

20. The power of mutations. The power of islands (environment).

Negatives:

1. No links to citations or source material.

2. No formal bibliography.

3. Intended for the masses, if you are looking for in-depth information you must look elsewhere.

In summary, I really enjoyed this book. Professor Cox has a love affair with science that is palpable. The high-production value of the book matches the enthusiasm and splendor of nature. The book's awe-inspiring illustrations can only be enjoyed from the Kindle Fire or the PC. If you are looking for a beautifully illustrated book that explains the wonders of life, this is it! I loved the book and I highly recommend it!

Recommendations: "Wonders of the Solar System" by Brian Cox, "Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution" by Nick Lane, "Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors" by Nicholas Wade, "The The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution" by Gregory Cochran, "Evolution For Dummies" by Tracy Barr, "Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters" by Donald R. Prothero, "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution" by Richard Dawkins, "Last Ape Standing: The Seven-Million-Year Story of How and Why We Survived" by Chip Walter, "The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution" by Sean B. Carroll, "Only a Theory" by Kenneth R. Miller, "The Red Queen" by Matt Ridley, "The Universe Inside You" by Brian Clegg, "Why Evolution Is True" by Jerry A. Coyne, and "Your Inner Fish" by Neil Shubin.