The Touchstone of Life: Molecular Information, Cell Communication, and the Foundations of Life

Biophysicist Loewenstein argues forcefully that information works in tandem with energy to provide structure to the physical world. He adopts the information science definition of information: a measure of order that ""quantifies the instructions that are needed to produce a certain organization."" Starting back at the Big Bang, Loewenstein discusses the origin of information and explains how it ""pulls a molecular organization out of the erratic quantum world and engenders the primal organizations of matter in the universe."" The bulk of his book then focuses on the role information transfer has played in the evolution of life over the past four million years. By merging principles of biology and physics, Loewenstein explains the workings of cell biology and biochemistry. Information exchange is shown to be responsible for processes as diverse as cellular reproduction, hormonal action, forms of cancerous growth and--or so the author claims--human consciousness. Though Loewenstein states he has written a book for the scientist and nonspecialist alike, he doesn't ever quite settle in to a single audience. Some sections--his explanation of DNA structure, for example--are far more simplistic than nearly any reader will require, while many of the rest are so technical that most nonscientists will find them very difficult indeed. 33 halftones, 53 linecuts. (Jan.)