Capsule Reviews

First Life, Radioactivity, Brain Bugs, Life of Earth

Written byBob Grant

| 3 min read

Listen with Speechify

0:00

3:00

by David Deamer
University of California Press, June 2011

In First Life, an authoritative voice weighs in on a sprawling debate that’s been raging in the scientific community for many decades, and lays out a succinct and persuasive hypothesis for the origin of life on Earth. University of California, Santa Cruz, biomolecular engineer David Deamer envisions a scenario in which life began in shallow, ephemeral pools of water dotting the sides of ancient volcanoes—habitats of a kind that can be seen in Iceland and Hawaii today. Deamer traces the story by traversing the scientific literature, from the first mention of panspermia by Arrhenius in 1903 to his own work on the “soap bubble” theory for the origin of life and his current research on synthetic ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!

Join for free today

Already a member? Login Here

Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
View Full Profile