Living and Non-living. In Search of the Definition of Life

How to distinguish the living from the non-living? Where to draw the line between them? At first glance, these are childlike questions. Yet for many centuries, scientists and philosophers have been unable to arrive at a satisfactory answer. This problem — what is life — is the subject of Karl Zimmer's new book. The author believes that there is no other field of human knowledge that has been given so many definitions. Will it be possible to find that one single and unquestionably correct answer? After all, there are a great many manifestations of life! And at the same time, can a virus be considered alive? What about a red blood cell or an organelle? Is a fertilized egg alive? Can one declare the death of a person whose brain has died, but whose body is functioning? Dark questions! A brilliant popularizer of science, already well-known to the Russian-speaking audience, invites the reader to another feast of scientific thought. So, did the author manage to find an answer, did he achieve his goal? We are in for a truly intriguing narrative!