Adrian Woolfson

Life without Genes

The origin of life is a fascinating subject, in particular the transition from chemicals floating about to what we would recognise as a living entity. The problem is how to convey this to readers who are not versed in the details of biochemistry. I do not think that this book fully succeeds at this task. Certainly the first part avoids a textbooky style when dealing with multidimensional state spaces by using plenty of metaphor and even several dream sequences. If you like this sort of style then you might want to try this book, but to my mind it was too quirky and made the book too long for a bit of light reading.

The central part of the book takes us back to proto-genes, and then to the pre-gene era when life consisted of chemical reactions without the ability to store information about itself. I have to say I found these chapters somewhat difficult to read - I'm sure that the average word length shot up at this point. This seems to be a common failing of books on this subject.

The final chapter is entitled 'The future of life', but is really a summary of the evolution of life from its beginnings to the present and possible futures, both near and distant. This chapter is much more readable, and could well be read on its own, separately from the rest of the book.

Amazon.com info

Hardcover 432 pages
ISBN: 0002556189
Salesrank: 2468439

Published: 2000 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

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Paperback 432 pages
ISBN: 0006548741
Salesrank: 1022281
Weight:0.71 lbs

Published: 2000 Flamingo

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Amazon.co.uk Review
If life started with genes, then hominid tool making may as well have started with the Model T Ford. Genetic processes are too sophisticated to have arisen spontaneously. So how did we come to be? Where must we look in our search for the beginnings of life? Adrian Woolfson is less interested in examining every theory than in exploring and explaining the whole notion of self-organisation: how the simplest self-organisers--the droplet of fat, say, that adopts a spherical shape in water--might give rise to living complexities. On the way, he offers a lucid and entertaining account of genetic processes, their importance--and their limitations--in making us what we are. Woolfson takes a mathematical approach to his subject. From a mathematical perspective, "living creatures are symbols which stand for their underlying mathematical edifices". So far, so dry: but Woolfson leaves us in no doubt as to what this implies: " ... packed alongside the small collection of crocodile gene kit boxes that have ... experienced the thrill of life and tasted blood ... is a much larger collection ... Crocodiles the size of tadpoles, winged crocodiles, tree-climbing crocodiles or crocodiles with elephant tusks and tiger stripes." Might DNA and genetic processes themselves be superseded? Woolfson's account ends on a speculative note. Life Without Genes is ground-up explanation of the first water. From Airfix kit-inspired, just-so stories to lucid descriptions of the work of the mathematician Ilya Prigogine, Woolfson is a virtuoso in full command of extraordinary material. --Simon Ings

Amazon.co.uk Review

If life started with genes, then hominid tool making may as well have started with the Model T Ford. Genetic processes are too sophisticated to have arisen spontaneously. So how did we come to be? Where must we look in our search for the beginnings of life? Adrian Woolfson is less interested in examining every theory than in exploring and explaining the whole notion of self-organisation: how the simplest self-organisers--the droplet of fat, say, that adopts a spherical shape in water--might give rise to living complexities. On the way, he offers a lucid and entertaining account of genetic processes, their importance--and their limitations--in making us what we are. Woolfson takes a mathematical approach to his subject. From a mathematical perspective, "living creatures are symbols which stand for their underlying mathematical edifices". So far, so dry: but Woolfson leaves us in no doubt as to what this implies: " ... packed alongside the small collection of crocodile gene kit boxes that have ... experienced the thrill of life and tasted blood ... is a much larger collection ... Crocodiles the size of tadpoles, winged crocodiles, tree-climbing crocodiles or crocodiles with elephant tusks and tiger stripes." Might DNA and genetic processes themselves be superseded? Woolfson's account ends on a speculative note. Life Without Genes is ground-up explanation of the first water. From Airfix kit-inspired, just-so stories to lucid descriptions of the work of the mathematician Ilya Prigogine, Woolfson is a virtuoso in full command of extraordinary material. --Simon Ings

Remarkable, enjoyable book on the science/ culture interface *****
Life without genes is quite different to any other popular science book as the author combines a literary style with up-to-date genetic information. Woolfson addressed the key questions of the origin of life which are how was the fist DNA program programmed and what sort of simple genetic technologies might have preceded the complex DNA technology used by all living things today. The answer accordingto Woolfosn is self-asembling networks of proteins (geneless life) which later became infected with replicating RNA and DNA polymers (lifeless genes). He then goes on to make a distinction between the logical computational aspects of living things and the actual technologies in whichthis logic is realized. He predicts that in the future living thigns will be designed from first pricniples. I very much enjoyed this book. It was a shame that it lacked an index, but otherwise I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in what life is and where we all came from!

Remarkable, enjoyable book on the science/ culture interface *****

Life without genes is quite different to any other
popular science book as the author combines a literary
style with up-to-date genetic information. Woolfson
addressed the key questions of the origin of life
which are how was the fist DNA program programmed and
what sort of simple genetic technologies might have
preceded the complex DNA technology used by all living
things today. The answer accordingto Woolfosn is
self-asembling networks of proteins (geneless life)
which later became infected with replicating RNA and
DNA polymers (lifeless genes). He then goes on to make
a distinction between the logical computational
aspects of living things and the actual technologies
in whichthis logic is realized. He predicts that in
the future living thigns will be designed from first
pricniples. I very much enjoyed this book. It was a
shame that it lacked an index, but otherwise I would
highly recommend it to anyone interested in what life
is and where we all came from!

Leaden and unconvincing **
Woolfson argues for complex, self-sustaining blobs arising through chemical action and only later being 'invaded' by RNA or somesuch. He does not tackle the likelihood of this happening. In the absence of his woolly theory, we have to assume that early replicators arose by chance and multiplied just because they were good at it; however, Woolfson requires us to accept not only this but also the simultaneous arising of his dynamic blobs. Both blobs and replicators would have to occur in sufficient numbers, in the same time-frame and locality, to make the 'invasion' he requires plausible - this despite the fact that in the absence of genes there is no imperative or mechanism for replication driving these blobs. Even then, he did not persuade me that his invaders could come to encode the existing dynamic systems they happen to have fallen into. And why regard the unreplicating blobs as 'life' and the self-reproducing RNA as mere floating junk? It all smacks of special pleading, and to no great purpose. Meanwhile, his flights of fancy are not always illuminating and are sometimes indulgent to the point of being pretentious. And the hard science (if you can call this hand-wavey stuff that) is dry as parchment and sometimes heavy-going. If there's something in his theory, I wait for a better communicator to expound it. Stick to Dawkins and Dennett.

Leaden and unconvincing **

Woolfson argues for complex, self-sustaining blobs arising through chemical action and only later being 'invaded' by RNA or somesuch. He does not tackle the likelihood of this happening. In the absence of his woolly theory, we have to assume that early replicators arose by chance and multiplied just because they were good at it; however, Woolfson requires us to accept not only this but also the simultaneous arising of his dynamic blobs. Both blobs and replicators would have to occur in sufficient numbers, in the same time-frame and locality, to make the 'invasion' he requires plausible - this despite the fact that in the absence of genes there is no imperative or mechanism for replication driving these blobs. Even then, he did not persuade me that his invaders could come to encode the existing dynamic systems they happen to have fallen into. And why regard the unreplicating blobs as 'life' and the self-reproducing RNA as mere floating junk? It all smacks of special pleading, and to no great purpose.

Meanwhile, his flights of fancy are not always illuminating and are sometimes indulgent to the point of being pretentious. And the hard science (if you can call this hand-wavey stuff that) is dry as parchment and sometimes heavy-going. If there's something in his theory, I wait for a better communicator to expound it. Stick to Dawkins and Dennett.

Fascinating in-depth description of genetics ****
If you're looking for an easy read, this is not it! If you're looking for a work of scientific depth expressed in language that shows you that the author is aware of the "meaning of it all", and is not just writing as a dry, scientific exercise, then this is the book for you! The author takes the reader through the basics of genetics, through the enormity of the possibilities it offers, and into the origins of life. He also posits the idea that perhaps DNA and RNA are merely the current state of affairs, not necessarily always to remain with us. Like the stone age gave way to the iron age which gave way to the bronze age, maybe there were precursors to DNA and RNA, and perhaps there will be successors too. The only problem I had was that, as a non life-sciences person, I had no previous knowledge of the subject at all, and it was only after I had read a simpler primer that I was able to appreciate what the author had to say. That's why I have given it four stars instead of five. All in all, a very good read, absorbing and enthralling, with bits to chew over and think about, and bits to laugh at. Literary science at its best!

Fascinating in-depth description of genetics ****

If you're looking for an easy read, this is not it! If you're looking for a work of scientific depth expressed in language that shows you that the author is aware of the "meaning of it all", and is not just writing as a dry, scientific exercise, then this is the book for you!

The author takes the reader through the basics of genetics, through the enormity of the possibilities it offers, and into the origins of life. He also posits the idea that perhaps DNA and RNA are merely the current state of affairs, not necessarily always to remain with us. Like the stone age gave way to the iron age which gave way to the bronze age, maybe there were precursors to DNA and RNA, and perhaps there will be successors too.

The only problem I had was that, as a non life-sciences person, I had no previous knowledge of the subject at all, and it was only after I had read a simpler primer that I was able to appreciate what the author had to say. That's why I have given it four stars instead of five.

All in all, a very good read, absorbing and enthralling, with bits to chew over and think about, and bits to laugh at. Literary science at its best!