The Demon in the Machine: How Hidden Webs of Information Are Finally Solving the Mystery of Life

A gripping new drama in science ... if you want to understand how the concept of life is changing read this Professor Andrew Briggs University of OxfordWhen Darwin set out to explain the origin of species he made no attempt to answer the deeper question: what is life? For generations scientists have struggled to make sense of this fundamental question. Life really does look like magic: even a humble bacterium accomplishes things so dazzling that no human engineer can match it. And yet huge advances in molecular biology over the past few decades have served only to deepen the mystery. So can life be explained by known physics and chemistry or do we need something fundamentally new?In this penetrating and wide-ranging new analysis world-renowned physicist and science communicator Paul Davies searches for answers in a field so new and fast-moving that it lacks a name a domain where computing chemistry quantum physics and nanotechnology intersect. At the heart of these diverse fields Davies explains is the concept of information: a quantity with the power to unify biology with physics transform technology and medicine and even to illuminate the age-old question of whether we are alone in the universe. From lifes murky origins to the microscopic engines that run the cells of our bodies The Demon in the Machine is a breath-taking journey across the landscape of physics biology logic and computing. Weaving together cancer and consciousness two-headed worms and bird navigation Davies reveals how biological organisms garner and process information to conjure order out of chaos opening a window on the secret of life itself. Review 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 Davids elegant and lucid exposition is highly promising -- Steven Poole ―GuardianImportant and imaginative -- Clive Cookson ―Financial TimesBoundary-transcending ... Davies claims that lifes defining characteristics are better understood in terms of information ... there is grandeur in this view of life ―NaturePaul 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 RelativityThis isone 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 thats as thrilling as it is satisfying. Superb. -- Robyn WilliamsThe 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 isinformation. 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-TimePaul Davies always probes the deepest questions in science. Here addressing the deepest of all -- SchrödingersWhat is Life? -- he tells us what life is: matter plus information - beyond the laws of physics but compatible with them. To elaborate this thesishe deploys his trademark talent: getting to the heart of the most abstruse and technical asp