From the vast reaches of our known universe to the smallest, single-celled microorganism, Fernando Orrego escorts us on an extraordinary journey through space and time. Building on Charles Darwin's work, Orrego uses natural philosophy to clearly explain the reactions that started in interstellar space and continued in the solar system and in the Earth´s atmosphere and surface, leading to the emergence of the first living cells.
An exploration in two parts, the journey begins with solid scientific evidence to reconstruct the solar system's humble beginnings in dust, gas, and interstellar clouds, then forming the sun and planets, including Earth and its moon. This process eventually produces numerous organic molecules in Earth's atmosphere that later increases in complexity in the primitive sea, and then follows a process of selection that finally leads to life.
The second part is a logical, secular reflection on what life is-the nature of our universe's material elements and their spatial and temporal limits. It is a discussion of natural laws and the information they hold that allowed the generation of life, as we know it today.
From a widely published author, professor, medical doctor, and award winner, comes an experience that informs, broadens horizons, and escorts each and every one of us a little closer to answering the eternal question of our existence.
About the Author: Fernando Orrego is a native of Santiago, Chile, where he earned an MD from the University of Chile, where he became professor of physiology and biophysics. He is also a former research associate, with Nobel Prize winner Fritz Lipmann at Rockefeller University, a former head of the department of biochemistry at The National Institute of Cardiology in Mexico, and was a fellow of the US Public Health Service and Guggenheim Foundation. He is a Miguel Otero prizewinner, and his contributions to medicine and humanism earned him the Albert Schweitzer medal.
Orrego is the author of ninety-nine scientific publications, including Darwin's Illness: A Final Diagnosis, The Personal Life of Charles Darwin, and John Paul II and the Theory of Evolution.
