<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/05/what-life-chemistry-biology-addy-pross" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/05/what-life-chemistry-biology-addy-pross</a><br><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">IMO, Pross is rightfully hard on those working from what early conditions were like -- at least in current contexts. (Spoiler: he's basically saying that this is a near impossible task and very unlikely to make further progress in the field. A big problem he points out is that conditions likely varied all over the place. He points out conditions on Earth today vary from the heart of volcanoes to ice fields of Antarctica to deep sea. He quotes Gerald Joyce's quip, "Just wait a few years, and conditions on the primitive Earth will change again." Pross's reasoning is we should go seek an answer to the ahistorical question first to avoid groping in the dark.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Of course, I've read Schrödinger's book _What Is Life?_ a while back</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">. I've also read Ed Regis's book with the same title (but not the same subtitle): </span><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/what-is-life-9780195383416" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="link" x-apple-data-detectors-result="1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">https://global.oup.com/academic/product/what-is-life-9780195383416</a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> I recommend all three, and all three are brief. I wonder how many more books with this title will come in the next seventy years. :/ </span></div><div><br><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><div style="font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294);"><font size="3"><span style="line-height: 20px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.294118); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.231373);">Regards,</span></font></div><div style="font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294);"><font size="3"><span style="line-height: 20px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.294118); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.231373);"><br></span></font></div><div style="font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294);"><div style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><div><font size="3"><span style="line-height: 20px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.294118); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.231373);">Dan</span></font></div> See my Kindle books at: </div><div style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dan-Ust/e/B00J6HPX8M/">http://www.amazon.com/Dan-Ust/e/B00J6HPX8M/</a></div></div></div><dl style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.65; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></dl></div></div></div></div></body></html>