Book Review: What is Life?

Anyone who has taken introductory biology is familiar with the stories of Mendel, the discovery of DNA, and Charles Darwin's adventures with evolution and natural selection. What most of these people probably do not realize is why this material is relevant in the modern age of molecular biology.


Ed Regis's book What is Life? Investigating the Nature of Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology takes the reader on the journey from the 1943, and the publication of Erin Schrodinger's What is Life? to the labs of modern day biochemists, cell biologists, and geneticists, who are beginning to unravel some of the fundamental questions about life. The book explores how we, as scientists, have reached the ability to develop life in the lab. This is often called synthetic biology, and it is frequently thought of as being the stuff of science fiction. Several of my blogs have covered topics relating to synthetic life (for example, see Synthetic Life Makes Synthetic Proteins), most because this is going to be a hot topic for society in the next few years. For as Ed Regis points out in his book, the work is already underway, and scientists are getting closer to unlocking some of the secrets of what it means to be "alive".

For those students who are burdened with a heavy reading load, or those non-students with hectic lives, this book is a mere 171 pages in length. Better yet, it is written in a non-technical style that brings to life many of the historical people in the study of the life sciences. It is an easy read, and anyone who has an interest in understanding science should check out this book.