Have you ever wondered just how it all began? Life on Earth, I mean. Unless you take the garden of Eden stories in the Hebrew book of Genesis, or perhaps a different mythological explanation, literally, it’s quite likely that your curiosity has followed a biological, or perhaps bio-chemical line of enquiry. But the challenge from such lines of thought is not so much how we got from point A to – for example – point K, but more how point A occurred in the first place.
In his recently published The Genesis Quest; the Geniuses and Eccentrics on a Journey to Uncover the Origin of Life on Earth, author Michael Marshall examines the ideas and researches of some of those who sought or are still seeking to uncover the explanation – or perhaps explanations – to this grand mystery.
Described as being filled with colourful accounts of “ingenuity, rivalry, and staggering levels of bloody-mindedness,” this is a work that promises to be as lively in its telling as its subject is thought-provoking.
