'A gripping new drama in science ... if you want to understand how the concept of life is
changing read this' Professor Andrew Briggs University of OxfordWhen Darwin set out to
explain the origin of species he made no attempt to answer the deeper question: what is life?
For generations scientists have struggled to make sense of this fundamental question. Life
really does look like magic: even a humble bacterium accomplishes things so dazzling that no
human engineer can match it. And yet huge advances in molecular biology over the past few
decades have served only to deepen the mystery. So can life be explained by known physics and
chemistry or do we need something fundamentally new? In this penetrating and wide-ranging new
analysis world-renowned physicist and science communicator Paul Davies searches for answers in
a field so new and fast-moving that it lacks a name a domain where computing chemistry
quantum physics and nanotechnology intersect. At the heart of these diverse fields Davies
explains is the concept of information: a quantity with the power to unify biology with
physics transform technology and medicine and even to illuminate the age-old question of
whether we are alone in the universe. From life's murky origins to the microscopic engines that
run the cells of our bodies The Demon in the Machine is a breath-taking journey across the
landscape of physics biology logic and computing. Weaving together cancer and consciousness
two-headed worms and bird navigation Davies reveals how biological organisms garner and
process information to conjure order out of chaos opening a window on the secret of life
itself.
