What is life? Fifty years after physicist Erwin Schrodinger posed this question in his celebrated and inspiring book, the answer remains elusive. In The Way of the Cell, one of the world's most respected microbiologists draws on his wide knowledge of contemporary science to provide fresh insight into this intriguing and all-important question. What is the relationship of living things to the inanimate realm of chemistry and physics? How do lifeless but special chemicals come together to form those intricate dynamic ensembles that we recognize as life? To shed light on these questions, Franklin Harold focuses here on microorganisms--in particular, the supremely well-researched bacterium E. coli--because the cell is the simplest level of organization that manifests all the features of the phenomenon of life. Harold shows that as simple as they appear when compared to ourselves, every cell displays a dynamic pattern in space and time, orders of magnitude richer than its elements. It integrates the writhings and couplings of billions of molecules into a coherent whole, draws matter and energy into itself, constructs and reproduces its own order, and persists in this manner for numberless generations while continuously adapting to a changing world. A cell constitutes a unitary whole, a unit of life, and in this volume one of the leading authorities on the cell gives us a vivid picture of what goes on within this minute precinct. The result is a richly detailed, meticulously crafted account of what modern science can tell us about life as well as one scientist's personal attempt to wring understanding from the tide of knowledge.

Harold, Franklin M.

IRL Press at Oxford University Press

Oxford Institute for Energy Studies

German Historical Institute London

New York: Oxford University Press

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

March 26, 2001

New York, 2001

1, 2001

What Is Life? Fifty Years After Physicist Erwin Schrodinger Posed This Question In His Celebrated And Inspiring Book, The Answer Remains Elusive. In The Way Of The Cell, One Of The World's Most Respected Microbiologists Draws On His Wide Knowledge Of Contemporary Science To Provide Fresh Insight Into This Intriguing And All-important Question.--jacket. Schrodinger's Riddle -- The Quality Of Life -- Cells In Nature And In Theory -- Molecular Logic -- A (almost) Comprehensible Cell -- It Takes A Cell To Make A Cell -- Morphogenesis: Where Form And Function Meet -- The Advance Of The Microbe -- By Descent With Modification -- So What Is Life! -- Searching For The Beginning -- Epilogue. Franklin M. Harold. Includes Bibliographical Notes And Bibliography (p. [259]-288) And Index.

"What is life? Fifty years after physicist Erwin Schrodinger posed this question in his celebrated and inspiring book, the answer remains elusive. In The Way of the Cell, one of the world's most respected microbiologists draws on his wide knowledge of contemporary science to provide fresh insight into this intriguing and all-important question."--BOOK JACKET.

In the spring of 1938, Adolf Hitler launched his conquest of Europe by annexing neighboring Austria.

Includes bibliographical references and index

2023-06-28