Life As No One Knows It: The Physics of Life's Emergence

by Sara Imari Walker

ISBN: 9780349128252

Published: 2025-08-12

What is life? This is among the most difficult open problems in science, right up there with the nature of consciousness and the existence of matter. All the definitions we have fall short. Physicist and astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker argues that solving the origin of life requires radical new thinking and an experimentally testable theory for what life is. She proposes a new paradigm for understanding what physics encompasses and what we recognize as life, inviting us into a world of maverick scientists working without a map, seeking not just answers but better ways to formulate the biggest questions we have about the universe. Rigorous, accessible, and vital, Life As No-One Knows It celebrates the mystery of life and the explanatory power of physics. 'A fresh take on the age-old questions "Are we alone?" and "Where did we come from?"' American Scientist 'A virtuosos intellectual performance... full of wit, mischief and bursts of insolent brevity' Simon Ings, Daily Telegraph...