How Did Life End Up With Us?

Having been involved with science and engineering for a fair whack of my life, I have often pondered how difficult it must be to attempt condensing the vast knowledge out there into something that can be read in one (or, at least, a small selection of books). Many have tried and – while there has been some success to this end – only a few (Richard Dawkins for example) have successfully managed all the way from the beginning to us humans without getting bog-bound in complexity and jargon. Until now, that is… In How Did Life End Up With Us, S S O’Connor has managed to summarise – if that’s even the appropriate word, because the book is bursting with science – the whole of life by way of the gene and the eternal struggle against the second law of thermodynamics, and all in an easily readable, extremely well-written book that anyone can pick off the shelf and see the mechanisms that brought us from there to here. It postulates the question: how did life, from a bunch of chemicals, end up with us; the only species capable of not only questioning its place in the scheme of things, but with the intellectual capacity to investigate it? I loved this book and its jaunty approach to some hefty concepts. I read it in a couple of nights – for a science book, it really is that well-written… and readable for anyone. This book is a treasure – and an absolute must read for everyone… whether you are a science geek or not. I am very much looking forward to reading S S O’Connor’s other works.