The Genesis Quest by Michael Marshall
"A dazzling intellectual journey" - Oren Harman
"A fascinating and challenging story" - Tim Flannery
"A fascinating and challenging story" - Tim Flannery
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The Genesis Quest is my first book. It tells the story of the century-long scientific effort to understand how life began on Earth.
What happened over 3.5 billion years ago to turn a dead ball of wet volcanic rock into a thriving biosphere? What did the first living thing look like, what was it made of, and how did it form?
Beginning in the 1920s in Soviet Russia, a small band of scientists has tried to figure out what happened. But from the 1960s onwards they have been riven by doubt and furious argument, because life is so complicated that it has proved incredibly difficult to imagine how it could have got started. It's only now, almost 100 years after the first serious hypothesis was put forward, that we're starting to see a way past this impasse.
The story is both a scientific puzzle and a human story about ingenuity, rivalry, and staggering levels of bloody-mindedness. It has explosions, totalitarian governments, voyages to the bottom of the sea and bizarre life forms.
The book is out now in the UK and US. The UK publishers are Weidenfeld & Nicolson (part of the Orion Publishing Group) and the US publishers are the University of Chicago Press. My agent is Peter Tallack of Science Factory.
What happened over 3.5 billion years ago to turn a dead ball of wet volcanic rock into a thriving biosphere? What did the first living thing look like, what was it made of, and how did it form?
Beginning in the 1920s in Soviet Russia, a small band of scientists has tried to figure out what happened. But from the 1960s onwards they have been riven by doubt and furious argument, because life is so complicated that it has proved incredibly difficult to imagine how it could have got started. It's only now, almost 100 years after the first serious hypothesis was put forward, that we're starting to see a way past this impasse.
The story is both a scientific puzzle and a human story about ingenuity, rivalry, and staggering levels of bloody-mindedness. It has explosions, totalitarian governments, voyages to the bottom of the sea and bizarre life forms.
The book is out now in the UK and US. The UK publishers are Weidenfeld & Nicolson (part of the Orion Publishing Group) and the US publishers are the University of Chicago Press. My agent is Peter Tallack of Science Factory.
UK readers: order The Genesis Quest from these outlets:
US readers: order The Genesis Quest from these outlets
Reviews
"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 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." Luis A. Campos of the University of New Mexico, author of Radium and the Secret of Life
"This book is an extremely stimulating read and I recommend it most strongly to scientists and laymen alike." Jim Lynch, The Biologist
"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." Tim Flannery, The New York Review of Books
"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 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." Luis A. Campos of the University of New Mexico, author of Radium and the Secret of Life
"This book is an extremely stimulating read and I recommend it most strongly to scientists and laymen alike." Jim Lynch, The Biologist
"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." Tim Flannery, The New York Review of Books