What is life? Following Dawkins, Hawking and Attenborough, the outstanding British scientist, Nobel Prize winner in medicine and physiology, Paul Nurse, seeks to answer one of the most important questions in science. Explaining in an accessible and understandable way the basic processes and phenomena without which life would be impossible, he presents fundamental ideas in the book, telling where they come from, why they are so important and how they intersect with each other. Cell, gene, evolution by natural selection, life as chemical process and life as a flow of information - these concepts are the alpha and omega of modern biology. “I consider five great concepts of biology, using which as stepping stones we will climb step by step to achieve a clearer understanding of how life works. I will combine them in a new way and use them to develop a set of general principles that reveal the concept of “life.” I hope they help you see the living world with fresh eyes." (Paul Nurse)The publishing layout of the book is saved in PDF A4 format.