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

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

'Provocative and intriguing' Wall Street Journal

Sara Imari Walker is Associate Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, Deputy Director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, and Associate Director of the ASU-Santa Fe Institute Center for Biosocial Complex Systems at Arizona State University. Originally trained in theoretical physics and Cosmology at Dartmouth College, and tenured at ASU at thirty-five, she has emerged as a leading young intellectual in the pursuit of understanding life and finding it on other worlds. She regularly engages with the public at events including the World Science Festival, World Science Scholars, Phoenix Comicon, and on TV and podcasts such as Through the Wormhole and NPR's Science Friday.