Christian de Duve, the Nobel Prize-winning biochemist, introduces readers to the most recent scientific theories about the ancient origins of life on Earth. He describes events of the past four billion years, from the formation of the first biomolecules to the complexities of the human mind, from microscopic chains of amino acids and nucleotides to cataclysmic events in distant galaxies, arriving at the compelling conclusion that the universe is strewn with `vital dust' capable of spawning life anywhere under the right conditions.