Origins: Cosmos, Earth, and Mankind

By Yves Coppens, Hubert Reeves, Dominique Simonnet and Joel de Rosney

In this potent book, three eminent scientists—an astrophysicist, an organic chemist, and an anthropologist—ponder and discuss some of the basic questions that have obsessed humankind through the ages, and offer thoughtful, enlightening answers in terms the layperson can easily understand. Until now, most of these questions were addressed by religion and philosophy. But science has reached a point where it, too, can voice an opinion. Beginning with the Big Bang roughly fifteen billion years ago, the authors trace the evolution of the cosmos, from the first particles, the atoms, the molecules, the development of cells, organisms, and living creatures, up to the arrival of Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. Proactive, informative, and free of technical or scientific jargon, Origins offers compelling insights into how the universe, life on Earth, and the human species began.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Helios Press
• Release date: Nov 7, 2011
• ISBN: 9781628722802

Reviews for Origins

[devil_llama · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A very simplistic look at life and the origin of the cosmos, set up as interviews by a journalist with three scientists. It is interesting that a quest for the meaning of life didn't lead our journalist to any biologists, since they are the people who study life. Instead, we get a physicist, a chemist, and an anthropologist, which means we get biological theories filtered through the lens of non-biologists. In addition, the journalist is determined to find an actual meaning for life, and seems to prefer to answer that meaning in a divine creator. Her attempts to put a divine creator into the mix are met with skepticism by the scientists, though there is a lot of waffling and non-overlapping nonsense generated. In the end, the book is weak not just because it is nearly 20 years old (the science is general enough that it might not matter too terribly), but because it really doesn't go anywhere outside the interest zone of the journalist who generates the questions. The speculation - not, not speculation, certainty - that we will be living extra-terrestrially in some not-too-distant future also grates; first because it isn't as likely as they suggest, and second because we don't have any right to take our messy selves out to screw up another world before we've figured out how to live without destroying everything around us.

[quantum_flapdoodle · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A very simplistic look at life and the origin of the cosmos, set up as interviews by a journalist with three scientists. It is interesting that a quest for the meaning of life didn't lead our journalist to any biologists, since they are the people who study life. Instead, we get a physicist, a chemist, and an anthropologist, which means we get biological theories filtered through the lens of non-biologists. In addition, the journalist is determined to find an actual meaning for life, and seems to prefer to answer that meaning in a divine creator. Her attempts to put a divine creator into the mix are met with skepticism by the scientists, though there is a lot of waffling and non-overlapping nonsense generated. In the end, the book is weak not just because it is nearly 20 years old (the science is general enough that it might not matter too terribly), but because it really doesn't go anywhere outside the interest zone of the journalist who generates the questions. The speculation - not, not speculation, certainty - that we will be living extra-terrestrially in some not-too-distant future also grates; first because it isn't as likely as they suggest, and second because we don't have any right to take our messy selves out to screw up another world before we've figured out how to live without destroying everything around us.