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What is life? This is among the most difficult open problems in science, right up there with the nature of consciousness and the existence of matter. All the definitions we have fall short. None help us understand how life originates or the full range of possibilities for what life on other planets might look like.
In Life As No One Knows It, physicist and astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker argues that solving the origin of life requires radical new thinking and an experimentally testable theory for what life is. This is an urgent issue for efforts to make life from scratch in laboratories here on Earth and missions searching for life on other planets.
Walker proposes a new paradigm for understanding what physics encompasses and what we recognize as life. She invites us into a world of maverick scientists working without a map, seeking not just answers but better ways to formulate the biggest questions we have about the universe. The book culminates with the bold proposal of a new theory for identifying and classifying life, one that applies not just to biological life on Earth but to any instance of life in the universe. Rigorous, accessible, and vital, Life As No One Knows It celebrates the mystery of life and the explanatory power of physics.
Sara Imari Walker is an Associate Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, Deputy Director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, and Associate Director of the ASU-Santa Fe Institute Center for Biosocial Complex Systems at Arizona State University. Originally trained in theoretical physics and Cosmology at Dartmouth College, and tenured at ASU at thirty-five, she has emerged as a leading young intellectual in the pursuit of understanding life and finding it on other worlds. She has published research on topics as diverse as chemical evolution, foundations of quantum mechanics, major evolutionary transitions, cancer biology and exoplanet science, but her central focus continues to be solving the problem of what life is. She has published more than 40 peer-reviewed papers and raised over $6M in research funding, with her work funded by many respected institutions including NASA. She is co-founder of the astrobiology-themed social website SAGANet.org and is a member of the Board of Directors of Blue Marble Space. She regularly engages with the public at events including the World Science Festival, World Science Scholars, Phoenix Comicon, and on TV and podcasts such as Through the Wormhole and NPR's Science Friday.
