num_pages: 352
description: A groundbreaking argument for why alien life will evolve to be much like life here on EarthWe are all familiar with the popular idea of strange alien life wildly different from life on earth inhabiting other planets. Maybe it's made of silicon! Maybe it has wheels! Or maybe it doesn't. In The Equations of Life  biologist Charles S. Cockell makes the forceful argument that the laws of physics narrowly constrain how life can evolve making evolution's outcomes predictable. If we were to find on a distant planet something very much like a lady bug eating something like an aphid we shouldn't be surprised. The forms of life are guided by a limited set of rules and as a result there is a narrow set of solutions to the challenges of existence.A remarkable scientific contribution breathing new life into Darwin's theory of evolution The Equations of Life makes a radical argument about what life can -- and can't -- be.
language: English
title: The Equations of Life: How Physics Shapes Evolution
publisher: Basic Books