Far be it from me to accuse Paul Davies of “overthinking the problem”, but let us consider that possibility.
Firstly, on the positive side, we’re all agreed that the bizarre complexity of life only makes sense in the context of evolution. Natural selection has produced a cornucopia of survival and improvement mechanisms.
Now consider this: The bigger the selective advantage of a mutation, the more quickly it will rise to dominance. Something like a “nerve” that can quickly send information (about food or a threat) to remote parts of an organism? Wham! Instant success! And a brain? Whoa!!
Summary so far: Given life, evolution explains the rest.
Paul Davies agonises over the remote probability of life beginning in the first place. I do not, because I already know of the organising power of inert materials. So do many physicists. These materials have different names in different domains, but I call them “substrates” - the right kind of clay, a particular crystalline material, something to anchor one material in a useful pattern while others extend it. One organic material becomes a substrate for the next.
Substrates make pond slime possible, and pond slime makes life possible.
That’s why I think there is, was, or will be life elsewhere in the universe; no transcendent principle is required; however the combined tyrannies of time and distance make it almost certain that in the little time left for us, we will never discover it.
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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 David's elegant and lucid exposition, is highly promising (Steven Poole Guardian)
Important and imaginative (Clive Cookson 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.) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Important and imaginative (Clive Cookson 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.) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
An astonishing new contribution to our ongoing quest for the secret of life itself.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Paul Davies has achieved an international reputation for his ability to explain the significance of advanced scientific ideas in simple language. He is the author of some twenty books and has written and presented a number of TV and radio programmes. He is the winner of the prestigious Templeton Prize and a Glaxo Science Writers' Fellowship. He is currently Professor at Arizona State University as well as the Director of BEYOND- Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product details
- ASIN : B07D1G7LJX
- Publisher : Penguin (31 January 2019)
- Language : English
- File size : 4445 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 237 pages
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Simple mind
1.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting general ideas, poorly structured
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 February 2019Verified Purchase
I enjoyed the thesis, that biology = physics + information but sometimes it was being assumed, sometimes to be proved.
Then I wasted a whole morning because fig 11 is seriously wrong: Eventually I found the original academic publication: several arrows are mis-drawn reversing DE and CE and GF and missing a reverse link on FG . Of course we are just general readers and don't deserve accuracy.
Then I wasted a whole morning because fig 11 is seriously wrong: Eventually I found the original academic publication: several arrows are mis-drawn reversing DE and CE and GF and missing a reverse link on FG . Of course we are just general readers and don't deserve accuracy.

1.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting general ideas, poorly structured
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 February 2019
I enjoyed the thesis, that biology = physics + information but sometimes it was being assumed, sometimes to be proved.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 February 2019
Then I wasted a whole morning because fig 11 is seriously wrong: Eventually I found the original academic publication: several arrows are mis-drawn reversing DE and CE and GF and missing a reverse link on FG . Of course we are just general readers and don't deserve accuracy.
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64 people found this helpful
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brymor
4.0 out of 5 stars
What is Life?
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 July 2019Verified Purchase
Davies asks the question, ‘What is Life?’ echoing Schrödinger’s 1943 Dublin lectures with the same title, and like Schrödinger, he believes that standard physics is unable to provide the answer. He claims that we will need a ‘new physics’, and Davies has two suggestions for how this might emerge: Maxwell’s demon, and information.
Maxwell’s famous demon chooses between fast and slow molecules of gas without doing work, thereby defying the second law of thermodynamics. Life also appears to defy the second law – it creates order out of disorder – so Davies goes in search of ‘demons’ in biology which might be capable of playing this trick, focussing on quantum processes in the cell.
His first ‘demon’ is quantum tunnelling, which ‘greases the wheels of life’s energy-generating machine’ (the synthesis of ATP); another is the ability of quantum particles to be ‘in two places at once’ which features in the physics of photosynthesis. Both of these processes are fundamental to life as we know it, and the fact that quantum effects are involved is undoubtedly significant, but none of this proves that life is a quantum phenomenon. Anticipating this argument, Davies turns it round by suggesting that if a quantum effect exists which could help life, then ‘we might expect evolution to stumble across it and select it.’ He could be right.
What Davies is doing here is looking for ‘magic bullets’ to explain life, and his second one is information. This idea emerged after the discovery of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick in 1953, and received extra impetus following the deciphering of the human genome between 1990 and 2003. Genes define the inherited characteristics of all living things, and we now know that they are encoded information. It follows that information is essential to life, which leads some people to make the further claim that life is information. Davies pursues this rabbit down any number of rabbit-holes, with varying success. He writes well, and it’s an exciting ride, but not altogether convincing. The information in the genes is acted on by processes in the cell: it is these processes which enable life – the information is not active.
Davies is good at covering all the options, but perhaps he should have put more effort into clarifying the distinction between data, information and instructions in the cell. Sometimes the genes are described as information, at other times as instructions – they can’t be both (although they can be treated as data, he’s right about that). Meanwhile statements like ‘in the biological world, the program is the data, and vice versa’ are too glib to provide insight.
His quest continues with the origin of life. He makes a useful distinction between two challenges: the first is, how did complex organic molecules self-organise to ‘create’ biology? Nobody knows, so Davies quickly moves on to his second challenge, which is: how did the ‘informational hallmarks’ of life emerge, in particular, the DNA coding scheme? Because of his enthusiasm for information, Davies very much wants to find an answer to this question, but controversy reigns, particularly regarding the probability of life emerging with these properties. On the one hand there are scientists who think that the origin of life was ‘a chemical fluke’ (implying that we are almost certainly alone in the universe). Others believe that life will emerge wherever it has a chance. Davies inclines to the first option.
After these intriguing discussions, Davies rather lets the side down with a chapter on consciousness, which is a quagmire of speculation for anybody, even our author. But he redeems himself in the epilogue, by acknowledging that ‘the conceptual gulf between physics and biology is so deep’ that ‘a full explanation of living matter entails something altogether more profound: nothing less than a revision of the nature of physical law itself.’ Davies thinks he has helped us move towards this goal with his quantum demons, and informational complexity – and he challenges his readers to go beyond him.
Maxwell’s famous demon chooses between fast and slow molecules of gas without doing work, thereby defying the second law of thermodynamics. Life also appears to defy the second law – it creates order out of disorder – so Davies goes in search of ‘demons’ in biology which might be capable of playing this trick, focussing on quantum processes in the cell.
His first ‘demon’ is quantum tunnelling, which ‘greases the wheels of life’s energy-generating machine’ (the synthesis of ATP); another is the ability of quantum particles to be ‘in two places at once’ which features in the physics of photosynthesis. Both of these processes are fundamental to life as we know it, and the fact that quantum effects are involved is undoubtedly significant, but none of this proves that life is a quantum phenomenon. Anticipating this argument, Davies turns it round by suggesting that if a quantum effect exists which could help life, then ‘we might expect evolution to stumble across it and select it.’ He could be right.
What Davies is doing here is looking for ‘magic bullets’ to explain life, and his second one is information. This idea emerged after the discovery of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick in 1953, and received extra impetus following the deciphering of the human genome between 1990 and 2003. Genes define the inherited characteristics of all living things, and we now know that they are encoded information. It follows that information is essential to life, which leads some people to make the further claim that life is information. Davies pursues this rabbit down any number of rabbit-holes, with varying success. He writes well, and it’s an exciting ride, but not altogether convincing. The information in the genes is acted on by processes in the cell: it is these processes which enable life – the information is not active.
Davies is good at covering all the options, but perhaps he should have put more effort into clarifying the distinction between data, information and instructions in the cell. Sometimes the genes are described as information, at other times as instructions – they can’t be both (although they can be treated as data, he’s right about that). Meanwhile statements like ‘in the biological world, the program is the data, and vice versa’ are too glib to provide insight.
His quest continues with the origin of life. He makes a useful distinction between two challenges: the first is, how did complex organic molecules self-organise to ‘create’ biology? Nobody knows, so Davies quickly moves on to his second challenge, which is: how did the ‘informational hallmarks’ of life emerge, in particular, the DNA coding scheme? Because of his enthusiasm for information, Davies very much wants to find an answer to this question, but controversy reigns, particularly regarding the probability of life emerging with these properties. On the one hand there are scientists who think that the origin of life was ‘a chemical fluke’ (implying that we are almost certainly alone in the universe). Others believe that life will emerge wherever it has a chance. Davies inclines to the first option.
After these intriguing discussions, Davies rather lets the side down with a chapter on consciousness, which is a quagmire of speculation for anybody, even our author. But he redeems himself in the epilogue, by acknowledging that ‘the conceptual gulf between physics and biology is so deep’ that ‘a full explanation of living matter entails something altogether more profound: nothing less than a revision of the nature of physical law itself.’ Davies thinks he has helped us move towards this goal with his quantum demons, and informational complexity – and he challenges his readers to go beyond him.
18 people found this helpful
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PP
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well written and not too challenging but mixed feelings about the publishers claims .....
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 March 2019Verified Purchase
As a casual reader of science books who strives to keep up with current developments I got something out of this but not what I was expecting. The book weaves in and out of well-established theories in biology and physics attempting to bind an information layer over molecular biology to explain some of the astonishing complexity. The 'information is physical' mantra is repeated throughout but without any real attempt at the very obvious question - so where the hell is all this information? If it really is physical and biological activity at the molecular level is responding to a giant network of it there ought to be a detectable imprint. Observations of localised chemical and electrical signalling are the nearest it gets to describing any kind of network. Of course this question has to remain unanswered because nobody has yet come up with any reasoned explanation so my disappointment was largely about the claims made by the publishers (who would have thought it, publishers making exaggerated claims to sell books!). Worth reading for some of the scientific facts and stories drawn in from the history of physics, biology and related studies but overall not particularly supportive of any grand new theory of life.
12 people found this helpful
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DC
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulously stimulating and thought-provoking
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 March 2020Verified Purchase
I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a book so much. The breadth of topics and the mind-blowing content kept me reading, even through the challenging parts. There are some profound ideas in here - in particular, hints about what consciousness might be - but even though the full answers still elude us there is more than a ring of truth about the importance of information science in biological processes. Can't recommend highly enough.
One person found this helpful
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Jennifer Juniper
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's fantastic reading.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 March 2019Verified Purchase
I am enthralled, in fact I've been reading it till 3 in the morning, every night since I got it. Riveting stuff. I just hope I have some idea of what life really is, before my spell is over! You have to read this! Thank you!
3 people found this helpful
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