a book trying to answer what life is from a physical perspective

castro94

hey , i want to hear your opinion on good books i could read . I just read "whats life? and mind and matter by Erwin Schröndinger , and im looking for a book that tries to answer similar questions in a physical or philosophycal way , but from a different perspective, and with some revolutionay ideas, any suggestions ?
P.S if you have any good books describing time or entropy, i would appreciate them as well

apeiron

A recent pop sci update on Schroedinger would be.....
http://www.amazon.com/Into-Cool-Ener.../dp/0226739376

Schroedinger's book was certainly great. And there are many still working on reducing both mind and life to the thermodynamic principles he outlined. I could give you a stack of literature references if you require.

Pythagorean

huh...

Schrödinger's aperiodic crystal can be viewed as a well-reasoned theoretical prediction of what biologists should have been looking for during their search for genetic material. Both James D. Watson,[2] and independently, Francis Crick, co-discoverers of the structure of DNA, credited Schrödinger's book with presenting an early theoretical description of how the storage of genetic information would work, and each respectively acknowledged the book as a source of inspiration for their initial researches.[3]

[2] Watson, James D. (2007), Avoid Boring People: (Lessons from a life in science), New York: Knopf, p. 353, ISBN 978-0-375-41284-4. Page 28 details how Watson came to appreciate the significance of the gene.

[3] Julian F. Derry (2004). "Book Review: What Is Life? By Erwin Schrödinger". Human Nature Review. Retrieved 2007-07-15.

castro94

schröndigers book was astonishing , it gave me a whole new perspevtive on life . i did miss some things , like in the "whats life " part , i expected it to be more information about how life came to be from the very begning. and in the mind and matter part , he approches the idea from a dualistic perspective , i cannot say that this is wrong but i feel like something that cannot be explained otherways that as " a universal identity from a higher dimension " shouldnot fit in a physic book . he explains how conssiousness is just a brain function for learning , but then he moves to how all our minds are a part of a universal identity ,i`d like to read more arguments for the mind just being brain function. if you think about it , it should not be possible to be otherwise , i mean if human life just came to be through alteration in the arrengement of atoms in a molecule , that gave certain benefits and that then natural selection put farword as a new property of the animal , in which state , our after which "rearengement" of atoms in the DNA molecule in our history did we get a "mind" from a higher dimension ? was this "universal identity " waiting for an animal body that was developed enoguh to take on a "mind ". and how will this mind "givng " work ?
P.S the book you linked seems intersting , thank you. i could not find the book review you mentioned