Investigations.

STUART KAUFFMAN

Nearly 60 years ago, Erwin Schrodinger rattled the physical sciences community by asking and attempting to answer the question, What is life? Now, Kauffman, a founder of the Santa Fe Institute and author of At Home in the Universe, tackles this question. Kauffman here defines life as being present in any system that reproduces itself and completes at least one thermodynamic work cycle--any activity involved in manipulating the surrounding environment to serve one's needs This startling theory suggests, among other things, that the "way [Isaac] Newton, [Albert] Einstein, and [Niels] Bohr taught us to do science may be incomplete," says Kauffman. He illustrates how this theory could facilitate a paradigm shift in biology--from a solely terrestrial to a cosmic science. Originally published in hardcover in 2000. OUP, 2002, 287 p., b&w illus., paperback, $17.95.