The Origins of Life: From the Birth of Life to the Origin of Language

Smith, John Maynard; Szathmáry, Eörs

ISBN 10: 0198504934 / ISBN 13: 9780198504931

Published by Oxford University Press, 1999

About this Item

Seller Inventory # BSM.18183

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Origins of Life: From the Birth of Life to the Origin of Language
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198504934
• ISBN 13: 9780198504931
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: very_good

About this title

Synopsis

When John Maynard Smith and Eors Szathmary published The Major Transitions in Evolution, it was seen as a major work in biology. Nature hailed it as a book of "grand and daunting sweep.... A splendid and rewarding tour de force." And New Scientist wrote that it captured "the essence of modern biology," calling it "an extremely significant book which, as a bonus, is very readable."
Now, in The Origins of Life, Maynard Smith and Szathmary have completely rewritten Transitions to bring their ideas to a wider audience of general readers. Here is a brilliant, state-of-the-art account of how life evolved on earth, focusing primarily on six major transitions--dramatic breakthroughs in the way that information was passed between generations. The authors offer illuminating explorations of the origin of life itself, the arrival of the first cells with nuclei, the first reproduction by sexual means, the appearance of multicellular plants and animals, the emergence of cooperation and of animal societies, and the birth of language.
The Origins of Life represents the thinking of two leading scientists on questions that engage us all--how life began and how it gradually evolved from tiny invisible cells into whales and trees and human beings.

About the Author

John Maynard Smith is an internationally renowned biologiest, widely respected for the originality of his ideas and quality of his thinking. He is a Professor in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex. Eors Szathmary is a Professor at the Collegium Budapest, in Hungary.