Origins: Speculations on the Cosmos, Earth and Mankind

by Hubert Reeves (Author), Yves Coppens (Author), Joël de Rosnay (Author), Dominique Simonnet (Author)

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In this potent book, three eminent scientists--an astrophysicist, an organic chemist, and an anthropologist--ponder and discuss some of the basic questions that have obsessed humankind through the ages, and offer thoughtful, enlightening answers in terms the layperson can easily understand. Until now, most of these questions were addressed by religion and philosophy. But science has reached a point where it, too, can voice an opinion. Beginning with the Big Bang roughly fifteen billion years show more ago, the authors trace the evolution of the cosmos, from the first particles, the atoms, the molecules, the development of cells, organisms, and living creatures, up to the arrival of Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. Proactive, informative, and free of technical or scientific jargon, Origins offers compelling insights into how the universe, life on Earth, and the human species began. show less

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7 reviews
A very simplistic look at life and the origin of the cosmos, set up as interviews by a journalist with three scientists. It is interesting that a quest for the meaning of life didn't lead our journalist to any biologists, since they are the people who study life. Instead, we get a physicist, a chemist, and an anthropologist, which means we get biological theories filtered through the lens of non-biologists. In addition, the journalist is determined to find an actual meaning for life, and seems to prefer to answer that meaning in a divine creator. Her attempts to put a divine creator into the mix are met with skepticism by the scientists, though there is a lot of waffling and non-overlapping nonsense generated. In the end, the book is show more weak not just because it is nearly 20 years old (the science is general enough that it might not matter too terribly), but because it really doesn't go anywhere outside the interest zone of the journalist who generates the questions. The speculation - not, not speculation, certainty - that we will be living extra-terrestrially in some not-too-distant future also grates; first because it isn't as likely as they suggest, and second because we don't have any right to take our messy selves out to screw up another world before we've figured out how to live without destroying everything around us. show less
A partir de preguntas formuladas por el periodista Dominique Simonnet, los otros autores, científicos, explican los principales hallazgos, las teorías y las hipótesis científicas que consideran más convincentes acerca de cómo se ha desarrollado la vida, desde el Big Bang hasta la aparición del hombre. El libro está estructurado en tres partes: el universo, la vida y el hombre.
univers, vida, home,

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Yves Coppens is Professor at the College de France, where he holds the chair of paloanthropology and prehistory. He is a member of the Acadmie des Sciences, and the author of Le Singe, I'Afrique et Homme (The Ape, Africa and Man) and Pre-ambules (Preambles), which have enjoyed huge popular success.
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Series

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Common Knowledge

Canonical title
Origins: Speculations on the Cosmos, Earth and Mankind
Original title
La plus Belle Histoire du monde

Classifications

Genres
Science & Nature, Nonfiction, Anthropology, General Nonfiction, History
DDC/MDS
523.1Natural sciences & mathematicsAstronomyThe Solar SystemUniverse
LCC
QB981 .P5813ScienceAstronomyAstronomyCosmogony. Cosmology
BISAC

Statistics

Members
282
Popularity
114,589
Reviews
5
Rating
(3.79)
Languages
8 — Catalan, English, French, German, Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish
Media
Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
22
ASINs
6