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 childish questions. Nevertheless, for many centuries, scientists and philosophers have been unable to come to a satisfying answer for all.... This problem - what is life - is the subject of a new book by Carl Zimmer. The author believes that there is no other area of human knowledge that has received so many definitions. Will it be possible to find that one single and unequivocally correct definition? After all, there are countless 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 we declare a person dead whose brain has died, but whose body is still 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 what - has the author managed to find an answer, has he reached his goal? We are in for a truly intriguing narrative!