This book tackles the most difficult and profound open questions about life and its origins from an information-based perspective.

Discusses the structure and nature of matter and ways in which it can change.

"What Is Life?" is Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger's exploration of the question which lies at the heart of biology. His essay, "Mind and Matter," investigates what place consciousness occupies in the evolution of life, and what part the state of development of the human mind plays in moral questions. "Autobiographical Sketches" offers a fascinating fragmentary account of his life as a background to his scientific writings.

Presents a multi-disciplinary perspective on the physics of life and the particular role played by lipids and the lipid-bilayer component of cell membranes. Emphasizes the physical properties of lipid membranes seen as soft and molecularly structured interfaces. By combining and synthesizing insights obtained from a variety of recent studies, an attempt is made to clarify what membrane structure is and how it can be quantitatively described. Shows how biological function mediated by membranes is controlled by lipid membrane structure and organization on length scales ranging from the size of the individual molecule, across molecular assemblies of proteins and lipid domains in the range of nanometers, to the size of whole cells. Applications of lipids in nano-technology and biomedicine are also described.

Discover what it means for the journey--your journey, my journey, our journey--to mean something.

The first comprehensive general resource on state-of-the-art protocell research, describing current approaches to making new forms of life from scratch in the laboratory. Protocells offers a comprehensive resource on current attempts to create simple forms of life from scratch in the laboratory. These minimal versions of cells, known as protocells, are entities with lifelike properties created from nonliving materials, and the book provides in-depth investigations of processes at the interface between nonliving and living matter. Chapters by experts in the field put this state-of-the-art research in the context of theory, laboratory work, and computer simulations on the components and properties of protocells. The book also provides perspectives on research in related areas and such broader societal issues as commercial applications and ethical considerations. The book covers all major scientific approaches to creating minimal life, both in the laboratory and in simulation. It emphasizes the bottom-up view of physicists, chemists, and material scientists but also includes the molecular biologists' top-down approach and the origin-of-life perspective. The capacity to engineer living technology could have an enormous socioeconomic impact and could bring both good and ill. Protocells promises to be the essential reference for research on bottom-up assembly of life and living technology for years to come. It is written to be both resource and inspiration for scientists working in this exciting and important field and a definitive text for the interested layman.

In Extra Lives, acclaimed writer and life-long video game enthusiast Tom Bissell takes the reader on an insightful and entertaining tour of the art and meaning of video games. In just a few decades, video games have grown increasingly complex and sophisticated, and the companies that produce them are now among the most profitable in the entertainment industry. Yet few outside this world have thought deeply about how these games work, why they are so appealing, and what they are capable of artistically. Blending memoir, criticism, and first-rate reportage, Extra Lives is a milestone work about what might be the dominant popular art form of our time.

In Origins, Dr. Lawrence explains many mysteries involving the origins of all things, including an exciting twist on the extinction of the dinosaurs. Dr. Lawrence provides unique answers for a whole range of questions about creation, including: "What environmental conditions allowed the dinosaurs to thrive?" "How did men and women live to be 900+ years of age in ancient times?" "How did the atmosphere form?" "How old is the earth and the universe?" "How did the universe expand?" "How did everything come into existence?" Whether you are an atheist or theist, evolutionist or creationist, educated or not, this book is for you and will benefit you. Table of Contents Preface5 Introduction5 ChapterPage Section I How Young is the Earth? 1Gravity8 2The Effects of Weaker Gravity on Life39 3The Canopy of Salt Water53 4Climate70 5Oxygen Concentration 78 6Land Was More Plentiful in the Past87 7Meteors, Asteroids, and Comets91 8Earth's Spin at Origins 99 9The Flood100 10No Deserts Before the Flood 108 11When and What Caused the Polar Ice Caps and the Ice Age?120 Section II How Old is the Earth? 12Tectonic Plates and River Deltas132 13Radioactive Isotopic Dating142 14Carbon-14 Dating151 15Viscosity of Rocks153 16Moon Dust154 17The Magnetic Field156 18Polystrata, Petrification, and Fossilization 159 19Distance to the Moon166 20Tyrannosaurus Rex Soft Tissue Found170 21Layers of the Earth171 22Transitional Fossils186 23Light197 24Humans Lived 900+ Years and Adaptation from Origins203 25What Happened to Dinosaurs?218 26The Big Bang Versus the Bible230 27The Big Bang Versus Physics238 28Evolution Versus Mathematics250 29Evolution Versus Physics264 30Evolution Versus Science270 31Evolution Versus the Bible292 Section III The Seven Days of Creation 32The First Day297 33The Second Day324 34The Third Day332 35The Fourth Day347 36The Fifth Day361 37The Sixth Day369 38The Seventh Day383 39Life in the Beginning Before Sin392 40Seven-Day Creation Versus Seven-Eon Creation 400 41The "Gap" Theory Between Verse 1 and 2 of Gen. 1408