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How did life start? How did something capable
of replicating itself emerge from the primordial soup? How
did it defy the odds? And how did it carry on seeking out
those very mutations that enable survival? Life is an extraordinary
phenomenon whose existence requires an extraordinary explanation.
Living organisms are controlled by a single
molecule -- DNA. Yet the study of physics tells us that
the behaviour of single molecules is controlled not by classical
laws but by the strange laws of quantum mechanics. The implications
of this for biology have never been fully explored. Until
now. In this brilliant debut, Johnjoe McFadden puts forward
a theory of quantum evolution. He shows how quantum mechanics
gives living organisms the ability to initiate specific
actions including new mutations. Indeed, such an ability
may be life's most fundamental attribute. This simple but
staggering theory has radical implications. Evolution may
not be random at all, as evolutionary theorists have taught
recently: rather, it may be directed -- cells may, in certain
circumstances, be able to choose to mutate particular genes
that provide an advantage in the environment in which the
cell finds itself.
This property of living organisms to direct
their actions has startling implications. It must be at
the root of both consciousness and free will: Quantum
Evolution provides a new understanding of the origin
of life and the meaning of death. Life, this brilliant book
argues, is a quantum phenomenon. Quantum Evolution
provides a new biology for the new millennium.
Johnjoe McFadden is a Reader in Molecular
Microbiology at the University of Surrey and editor of the
first textbook on molecular mycobacteriology.
For more than a decade, Dr. McFadden
has specialised in examining the genes of the bacteria that
cause tuberculosis and meningitis. His research has ranged
from inventing molecular tests to diagnose meningitis (which
received worldwide press, radio and TV coverage), to the
design of artificial-life computer programs that model key
stages in evolution (also covered in the media). He was
a runner-up for the 1997 Wellcome Trust Prize for popular
science writing. This is his first book a non-specialist
audience.
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