Fifth Miracle

TAG: Science, Origin of Life
Rating: 3 / 5 worms

Fifth Miracle, written by Paul Davies, is another of the well written books on origin of life.

It has some very important points discussed, for example, it discusses how it is indeed true that the new species, which develop due to a mutation, are not always better versions of the one they evolve from. This means that mutations are accidental and not a nature’s way to modify the existing species towards the better. The author states various examples to support this idea. Many of the life forms perform their life functions using methods which are clumsy and there are clear scopes of improvement. Yet there has been no mutation in millions of years to bring about any such changes. Man, supposed to be the best, cannot fly or swim, although monkeys can swim and never need a boat to sail across the rivers.

Also, the book describes micro organisms as the possible the first step to life, micro organisms have the capability to live in extremely harsh conditions and surviving in it for several decades at a stretch. They have complex mechanisms to deal with such situations, which even human will envy. In fact human system is much too poor to handle any thing abnormal and gets severely affected very soon.

Paul states much more and elaborate stuff and of course, with much better charm.