Blog Posts

Two new videos of me talking about how life on Earth began

4/2/2021

Over the last few weeks I've released two new videos about the origin of life on Earth, as part of my ongoing virtual book tour to support The Genesis Quest.

If you'd like something short, I recorded a little YouTube video for my US publishers, the University of Chicago Press. It's part of their Author At Home series and you can watch it here, or embedded below. In it I explain what the book's about and what it says, and about how exploring the origin of life pushes at the boundaries of our knowledge.

Alternatively, if you'd like something a bit more in-depth, I gave an hour-long online talk to the Sidmouth Cafe Scientifique

The New York Review of Books reviews The Genesis Quest

16/11/2020

To coincide with its US release, The Genesis Quest has been reviewed in The New York Review of Books. All I can say is wow: this is a seriously in-depth, engaged review that offers a really rich picture of the book.

It's written by Tim Flannery, an Australian biologist and environmentalist with a very wide-ranging set of interests. I'm really pleased he's found so much to engage with.

Here's a sample passage:

"Marshall’s book focuses on the chemical research—from the first speculative insights made by brilliant minds to the complex experiments that have increasingly dominated the field—into life’s origins. It’s a fascinating and challenging story, and leavened with mini-biographies, the best of which are based on his own interviews with his subjects."

Read the whole review here

I went on the Probably Science podcast to talk about "The Genesis Quest"

26/10/2020

I went on the Probably Science podcast to talk about The Genesis Quest, which is out in the US this week.

Probably Science is a light-hearted science podcast hosted by Matt Kirshen and Andy Wood, who are both professional comedians based in California. Full disclosure: Matt is an old friend from university.

We talked about how life might have begun, the scientists who have explored the question, the long-running controversies in the field, and whether there is life elsewhere in the universe and if so what it might be like.

There's a technical glitch partway through where Matt lost his connection to the rest of us, which evidently wasn't possible to edit out, so you get to hear our behind-the-scenes "how shall we fix this?" conversation. But we do then get back to the point!

You can listen to the episode on their website, and on all the usual podcast outlets like iTunes and Patreon.

I made two videos to promote "The Genesis Quest"

29/9/2020

I've made two videos to promote my book The Genesis Quest. Each gives a potted summary of one of the book's core ideas, so I thought I'd share them here.

The first video was made for the Global Science Show, a monthly event on Twitter in which dozens of people share videos explaining their favourite areas of science. Thanks to Sam Langford for inviting me to take part in the September event!

I made a video asking how life on Earth began, which summarises the core argument of the book. You can watch it on YouTube, or here:

The second video was made for MajorTim.space, which is a family-oriented site with a focus on space - inspired by British astronaut Tim Peake. I made a video asking when life on Earth began, which tries to convey just how huge a span of time 3.5 billion years really is. Thanks to Amelia Piper for inviting me to do this, and for editing the video! You can watch it on the MajorTim.space website, or it's embedded here:

"The Genesis Quest" has been reviewed in "The Biologist" magazine

28/9/2020

My book The Genesis Quest has been favourably reviewed in The Biologist, the official magazine of the Royal Society of Biology. The review is by Professor Jim Lynch of the University of Surrey and it's very positive. Sample quotes:

"The book's distinctive style comes from well-researched analysis of the behaviour and lifestyles of the various scientists who have contributed to this fascinating and uniquely difficult question."

"This book is an extremely stimulating read and I recommend it most strongly to scientists and laymen alike."

Read the full review in The Biologist

My book "The Genesis Quest" is OUT NOW in the UK

20/8/2020

Today, 20 August 2020, is the UK publication day for my first book The Genesis Quest!

The book is the story of scientists' struggle to understand how life began on Earth. It's a mystery story with a fascinating cast of real-life characters, and an exploration of one of the biggest questions in modern science - a question that has fascinated me for years.

From the back cover: "By asking how life came to be, we are implicitly asking why we are here, whether life exists on other planets, and what it means to be alive. This book is the story of a group of fragile, flawed humans who chose to wrestle with these questions."

The Genesis Quest has been a labour of love that's taken three years, plus a decade of journalistic legwork to amass the knowledge and contacts to attempt it. I'm so excited for you all to finally be able to read it.

A huge thank-you to everyone who has helped me along the way. The book wouldn't exist without you! An equally huge thank-you to everyone who has already bought it. Your support means so much!

Also, I, er, I do have a few ideas for a second one...

More about The Genesis Quest, and a list of places to order it, on this page

Luis Campos reviews my book "The Genesis Quest"

20/7/2020

I'm happy to share a new review of my book The Genesis Quest (to complement the two already released). This one comes from science historian Luis A. Campos at the University of New Mexico, author of Radium and the Secret of Life. Campos says:

"The Genesis Quest recounts remarkable episodes in the history of attempts to scientifically understand the origin of life. Combining exceptionally clear expositions of what is scientifically at stake, distinctive humor, and a roving eye for the telling anecdote, this is anything but a tedious scientific genealogy. Marshall has a flair and talent for explaining each individual experiment and its intellectual context. The Genesis Quest offers a well-done romp through some fascinating and complicated terrain."

The first reviews of my book "The Genesis Quest" are in

24/6/2020

I've been sent the first two reviews of The Genesis Quest, from my US publishers the University of Chicago Press. I'm both excited and a bit bashful to share them. They made me go squee.

"Marshall has rounded up all the past and current thinking about this profound and puzzling question – how did life begin? – into a neat, enthralling and highly digestible package. He doesn't pretend we can answer the question, but does justice to all the key proposals so far. And if anything, his survey of potential solutions makes the appearance of life on Earth seem all the more astonishing as we examine the issue ever more closely." Philip Ball, author of How To Grow a Human

"Prepare yourself for a dazzling intellectual journey: the science is fascinating, the cast of characters all-too-human, and the philosophical insights deep. Written in clear and entertaining prose, like a Sherlock Holmes story, this is the best book I know for general readers about the quest to solve one of our most enduring mysteries: how and where, in a seemingly purposeless universe, life began on planet earth." Oren Harman, coeditor of Dreamers, Visionaries, and Revolutionaries in the Life Sciences and Outsider Scientists: Routes to Innovation in Biology

The Russian edition of "The Genesis Quest" will be published by Corpus

22/5/2020

My book The Genesis Quest is going to be published in Russia.

The Russian rights have been bought by Corpus Books, a division of Russia's largest trade publisher AST. I'm told this means I will share a publisher with Donna Tartt, Jonathan Franzen and Salman Rushdie - which is ever so slightly surreal.

The audiobook edition of "The Genesis Quest" will be read by Ciaran Saward

22/5/2020

I'm happy to announce that the audiobook of my book The Genesis Quest will be read by Ciaran Saward.

Ciaran was suggested by my UK publishers Weidenfeld & Nicolson. When I received their email I was all set to find fault, because THEY'RE MY PRECIOUS WORDS AND THIS RANDOM PERSON WILL RUIN THEM. Then I listened to some sample recordings and realised they had judged it perfectly. Ciaran sounds authoritative but not overbearingly so, and he has a lightness of touch that really suits the (hopefully) humorous bits of the book. Put another way, he sounds like I wish I sounded.

You can listen to Ciaran's voiceover work on his website.

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