Life Explained

“Fifty years ago, Francis Crick and James D. Watson discovered the double-
helix structure of DNA, the carrier of genetic information, the basis for
heredity. They believed they had, according to Francis Crick’s own expression,
found “the secret of life.” The main aim of this book is to continue the story
beyond the double helix and interpret recent developments through
transformations that have occurred in biology in the last fifty years. These
transformations are often unknown by the general public, as if molecular
biology had remained stalled around the double helix. But the return of the
question “What is life?” is also the result of events that have occurred
outside biology, of a general evolution of ideas that we will undertake to
investigate.” M. M. Michel Morange is a biologist, and professor at the
University of Paris-VI, and at the École normale supérieur. He is director of
the Centre Cavaillès d’histoire et de philosophie des sciences. He is the
author of La Part des gènes [The Misunderstood Gene].