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So Simple a Beginning
- Author
- Raghuveer Parthasarathy
- Narrator
- Anand Jagatia
- Publisher
- Princeton University Press
- Publish Date
- 8 February 2022
- Run Time
- 9 hours 25 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
This audiobook narrated by Anand Jagatia reveals the hidden unity behind nature's breathtaking complexity
The form and function of a sprinting cheetah are quite unlike those of a rooted tree. A human being is very different from a bacterium or a zebra. The living world is a realm of dazzling variety, yet a shared set of physical principles shapes the forms and behaviors of every creature in it.
So Simple a Beginning shows how the emerging new science of biophysics is transforming our understanding of life on Earth and enabling potentially lifesaving but controversial technologies such as gene editing, artificial organ growth, and ecosystem engineering.
Raghuveer Parthasarathy explains how four basic principles—self-assembly, regulatory circuits, predictable randomness, and scaling—shape the machinery of life on scales ranging from microscopic molecules to gigantic elephants. He describes how biophysics is helping to unlock the secrets of a host of natural phenomena, such as how your limbs know to form at the proper places, and why humans need lungs but ants do not. Parthasarathy explores how the cutting-edge biotechnologies of tomorrow could enable us to alter living things in ways both subtle and profound.
This sweeping tour of biophysics offers astonishing new perspectives on how the wonders of life can arise from so simple a beginning.
Critics Review
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Hands down the most beautiful book I've ever read. . . . The intersection of biology and physics might be the most underappreciated cross-over in the sciences."—Nicole Barbaro, Bookmarked
Bookmarked
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"An insightful and intuitive journey through the world of biophysics, letting us see how physical laws lead to the wonder of biology at all scales of the organism."—Jonathan Shock, Mathemafrica
Mathemafrica
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Raghuveer Parthasarathy
- Narrator
- Anand Jagatia
- Duration
- 9 hours 25 minutes
- Release Date
- 8 February 2022
- ISBN
- 9780691234861
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Princeton University Press
- Genre
- Biophysics, Biology, life sciences
Synopsis
This audiobook narrated by Anand Jagatia reveals the hidden unity behind nature's breathtaking complexity The form and function of a sprinting cheetah are quite unlike those of a rooted tree. A human being is very different from a bacterium or a zebra. The living world is a realm of dazzling variety, yet a shared set of physical principles shapes the forms and behaviors of every creature in it. So Simple a Beginning shows how the emerging new science of biophysics is transforming our understanding of life on Earth and enabling potentially lifesaving but controversial technologies such as gene editing, artificial organ growth, and ecosystem engineering. Raghuveer Parthasarathy explains how four basic principles—self-assembly, regulatory circuits, predictable randomness, and scaling—shape the machinery of life on scales ranging from microscopic molecules to gigantic elephants. He describes how biophysics is helping to unlock the secrets of a host of natural phenomena, such as how your limbs know to form at the proper places, and why humans need lungs but ants do not. Parthasarathy explores how the cutting-edge biotechnologies of tomorrow could enable us to alter living things in ways both subtle and profound. This sweeping tour of biophysics offers astonishing new perspectives on how the wonders of life can arise from so simple a beginning.
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