Every Life Is on Fire: How Thermodynamics Explains the Origins of Living Things

A preeminent physicist unveils a field-defining theory of the origins and purpose of life.

Why are we alive? Most things in the universe aren't. And everything that is alive traces back to things that, puzzlingly, weren't.

For centuries, the scientific question of life's origins has confounded us. But in Every Life Is on Fire, physicist Jeremy England argues that the answer has been under our noses the whole time, deep within the laws of thermodynamics. England explains how, counterintuitive...