Life's Edge The Search for What It Means to Be Alive

Stories that both dazzle and edify particularly brilliant in telling the story of DNA Zimmer is an astute, engaging writer inserting the atmospheric anecdote where applicable, drawing out a scientific story and bringing laboratory experiments to life. This book is not just about life, but about discovery itself. It is about error and hubris, but also about wonder and the reach of science.
Siddhartha Mukherjee, New York Times Book Review

[Zimmer] embraces the question of what it means to be alive explicitly and with the enthusiasm of an accomplished and successful storyteller. Zimmer has crafted an eminently readable tale, told through the stories and personal anecdotes of the scientists who have devoted their research to defining the essence of life.
Issues in Science and Technology

The pleasures of Life s Edge derive from its willingness to sit with the ambiguities it introduces, instead of pretending to conclusively transform the senseless into the sensible.
The Washington Post

A fascinating and well-written mapping of the edges of biology, which will have broad appeal to nonscientists.
Library Journal (starred review)

Diligently tackles the true definition of life... Zimmer invites us to observe, ponder, and celebrate life's exquisite diversity, nuances, and ultimate unity.
Booklist (starred review)

A master science writer explores the definition of life... An ingenious case that the answers to life's secrets are on the horizon.
Kirkus Reviews

From the struggle to define when life begins and ends to the hunt for how life got started, [Life's Edge] offers an engaging, in-depth look at some of biology s toughest questions.
Science News

Carl Zimmer shows what a great suspense novel science can be. Life's Edge is a timely exploration in an age when modern Dr. Frankensteins are hard at work, but Carl s artful, vivid, irresistible writing transcends the moment in these twisting chapters of intellectual revelation. Prepare to be enthralled.
Jennifer Doudna, Nobel Laureate, co-author of A Crack in Creation
 
Profound, lyrical, and fascinating, Life s Edge will give you a newfound appreciation for life itself. It is the work of a master science writer at the height of his skills a welcome gift at a time when life seems more precious than ever.
Ed Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes

Previously garnered praise for Carl Zimmer:

One of the best science writers we have today.
Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
 
No one unravels the mysteries of science as brilliantly and compellingly.
David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon
 
Nobody writes about science better.
Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish
 
Carl Zimmer makes the complex science of heredity read like a novel.
Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction