This Is Life cover art

This Is Life

From the acclaimed author of the international bestseller The Universe in Your Hand
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This Is Life

By: Christophe Galfard, Stuart Wilson
Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
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About this listen

'What a fun book! Like having a chat with a friendly scientist over a coffee' – Steve Brusatte, author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

'I can't remember when I last enjoyed a biology book so much' – Brian Clegg, author of The Universe Inside You

'A gorgeous, glorious romp through the sciences' – David Tong, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge

What is life? How did it first appear? Where else in the universe might we find it?

In This Is Life, acclaimed science communicator and Stephen Hawking’s former Ph.D. student Christophe Galfard takes you on a wonder-filled journey through the complete history of life on earth, from its birth and the mysterious colonies of bacteria that lived billions of years ago, through the extreme evolutionary turns that saw sea scorpions grow to the size of dogs and trees covered in scales, to the visionary discoveries of the past two centuries that have allowed us to understand what we, humans, and all other living organisms really are.

Through brilliant storytelling and delightful humour, Galfard makes the secrets of the living world accessible to all. This Is Life will transform the way you see the world, and your place in it.

 Biological Sciences Evolution Evolution & Genetics Genetics Science

Critic Reviews

What a fun book! Reading Christophe Galfard feels like you’re having a chat with a friendly scientist over a coffee – a chat that ends with a grand appreciation for how the physical universe enables our own existence (Steve Brusatte, bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs)
I can't remember when I last enjoyed a biology book so much. Christophe Galfard brings to life with remarkable storytelling his exploration of where we come from as a species (Brian Clegg, author of The Universe Inside You)
A wonderful, compelling read. Few popular science books are so unputdownable (David Beerling, author of The Emerald Planet)
A gorgeous, glorious romp through the sciences to address the biggest question of all: What is life? The reader is in safe hands with Christophe Galfard, whose charming, expressive writing leads you gently through some of the greatest discoveries humans have ever made (David Tong, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge)
With child-like curiosity, Galfard sets out to explain just about everything we know about the world and how it began, from the birth of the sun to the microbiology of our own cells. He is a marvellously irrepressible guide, the science teacher you'll wish you'd had. This hugely ambitious book reminds us of the wonderments of life (Michael Bond, author of Animate)
A thoroughly original, enjoyable read, written with much humanity and humour, Christophe Galfard's book takes the reader across eons of time from the first chemical building blocks to the emerge of the vast zoo of life on Earth we know today, capturing all the trials and challenges along the way (Charles Cockell, author of The Equations of Life)
Peppered with delightful and unexpected anecdotes . . . The editors of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would do well to base their next entry for Earth on this book (Felix Flicker, author of The Magick of Matter)
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