An astonishing new contribution to our ongoing quest for the secret of life itself.
Paul Davies is a Regents' Professor of Physics and Director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University. The author of some 30 books, his many awards include the Templeton Prize and the Faraday Prize of The Royal Society. He is a Member of the Order of Australia and has an asteroid named after him.
Brilliantly vivid ... The big idea is that understanding the
information flow in organisms might be the missing part of our
scientific jigsaw puzzle. The informational approach [to life], in
David's elegant and lucid exposition, is highly promising
*Guardian*
Important and imaginative
*Financial Times*
Boundary-transcending ... Davies claims that life's defining
characteristics are better understood in terms of information ...
there is grandeur in this view of life
*Nature*
Paul Davies is a courageous explorer of the boundaries of what we
can know about our world. This book makes his explorations
available to all who enjoy pushing those boundaries. Written with a
light entertaining touch, even the most abstruse science acquires
the clarity of exposition for which the author is justly
renowned
*Denis Noble, University of Oxford, author of Dance to the Tune of
Life: Biological Relativity*
This is one of the most exciting books I have read in years. Paul
Davies celebrates a significant anniversary with a demonically
brilliant investigation of a fundamental question that only the
very latest science and philosophy can deal with. Now we have a
view from the master that's as thrilling as it is satisfying.
Superb.
*Robyn Williams*
The molecular biology revolution has led to extraordinary
understandings of how life emerges from physical processes. But
comprehension of the nuts and bolts of these processes omits a key
feature of what is going on: what separates life from non-life is
information. In this characteristically clearly written and
engaging book, ranging from physics to biology and evolutionary
theory to neuroscience, Paul Davies strongly makes the case that at
its core, life is about information flows. There is much food for
thought here. Highly recommended.
*George F.R. Ellis, University of Cape Town, co-author of The Large
Scale Structure of Space-Time*
Paul Davies always probes the deepest questions in science. Here,
addressing the deepest of all -- Schrödinger's What is Life? -- he
tells us what life is: matter plus information - beyond the laws of
physics, but compatible with them. To elaborate this thesis, he
deploys his trademark talent: getting to the heart of the most
abstruse and technical aspects of science (biology as well as
physics), without jargon and with down-to-earth analogies
*Michael Berry, HH Wills Physics Laboratory*
This creative demon shadows DNA and the promise of quantum
computing, answering some basic questions. What is consciousness,
why is life so good at predicting where it might go next? The
bridge connecting fundamental physics, biology and the most
advanced labs of computation is what Davies calls information
patterns. He shows how it organizes for top-down creativity, and
thereby holds off the grim reaper of entropy. With striking
insight, and metaphors that illuminate the landscape of science
today, Davies once again becomes a guide to the near future.
*Charles Jencks, The Garden of Cosmic Speculation*
The Demon in the Machine encompasses some of the most intriguing
and unsolved mysteries of the universe: the existence of an arrow
of time imprinted on the cosmos, and the emergence of life itself.
Davies' crisp but rich narrative succeeds in untangling various
highly complex ideas and processes, while fluently and
intelligently setting out its own arrow of argument.
*Mikhail Prokopenko, The University of Sydney*
Paul Davies narrates a gripping new drama in science, in which the
plot is the story of life and the leading actor is information.
With his characteristic blend of erudition and clarity, he brings
together some of the most rapidly advancing knowledge in physics
and technology to show how information controls biology. If you
want to understand how the concept of life is changing, read
this.
*Professor Andrew Briggs, University of Oxford, author of The
Penultimate Curiosity and It Keeps Me Seeking.*
A tour-de-force of a fascinating and frontier topic: information as
a distinguishing, central aspect of those physical systems known as
living ones. The Demon in the Machine is simultaneously rigorous,
state-of-the-art, and highly readable - very hard to put down
*Michael Levin, Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University*
Paul Davies takes us on a fascinating tour of what is known about
what life is. Along the way he speculates interestingly about what
may become known. His theme, drawn from Darwin, Schrödinger,
Turing, Gödel, Shannon and von Neumann, is that what separates life
from non-life is information. But how? Exploring that question
illuminates biology by revealing its deep roots in physics,
mathematics and computer science.
*David Deutsch*
What is life? Questions don't come much bigger than that. It's
asked regularly by biologists, philosophers, lawyers, law-makers,
astrobiologists and, occasionally, wide-eyed children. It's not so
often asked by physicists, which makes Paul Davies' new book, The
Demon In The Machine, that much more fascinating.
*Sydney Morning Herald*
a vivid exposition of the new mathematics of biology, in which
information flows play a central part
*The Telegraph, best new science books to buy for Christmas
2019*
Davies - one of the most imaginative scientists working today -
urges biologists studying the origins and evolution of life to pay
more attention to flows of information and energy on top of
traditional chemistry and physics. He is a clear guide to the
emergence of information science as a key factor in biology
research.
*The Financial Times, Best books of 2019: Science*
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