Biogenesis: Theories of Life's Origin (review)

Noam Lahav. Biogenesis: Theories of Life's Origin. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. xii + 349 pp. Ill. $65.00 (cloth), $29.95 (paperbound).

This densely packed book is a survey and discussion of scientific research on the origin of life by a scientist who has been involved in this field for more than twenty years. A couple of historical chapters briefly set out the main developments of scientific thought, from the pre-Socratics to the 1950s--but in a highly schematic way, without contextual analysis. The bulk of the book is devoted to recent scientific work, although Lahav introduces many historical figures along the way. As the origin of life is a highly controversial, interdisciplinary subject, his goal is to present the various points of view and methodological approaches that scientists have taken. But the reason for undertaking this survey and comparison of the various schools of research is never entirely clear, and the book ends rather weakly, without apparently having an argument to present.

The discussion of scientific theories in Biogenesis is quite technical and inaccessible to the general reader. The style of writing is similar to that of a technical scientific publication. The scientists themselves do not emerge as individuals, but are often little more than names and dates. Lahav mentions more than one thousand individuals in total, and many of their ideas are presented in a highly condensed way. This is a book for someone who already has detailed knowledge of this field of research.

Perhaps most frustrating to the general reader is that opportunities to consider broader issues, or to develop the context of scientific research, are not taken up. At one point, for example, Lahav mentions that a particular scientist made frequent references to Karl Popper's methodology and states that these references were not just window-dressing but were important to that man's vision of science. But in the several pages of discussion that follow, no explanation is made of how this scientist's work reflects Popper's influence, or why this might distinguish the work from other approaches, or why it mattered in the least that he was a Popperian. In fact, Popper is mentioned just the one time, with no further elaboration anywhere in the book. Yet Lahav thanks this scientist for sharing his manuscripts and for commenting on portions of the book. One would expect that when there is a personal relationship with a scientist, some deeper probing of the intellectual context of science could be attempted.

Even opportunities to develop context from Lahav's own experience seem not to be taken up. He mentions being part of the Exobiology group at Ames Research Center, for example, but says nothing about this group, why it existed, who was in it, or what its goals were. NASA is mentioned only once in the entire book. There is, in short, little sense of people as social beings, nor any attempt to discuss the institutional context of science.

Readers may find the book to be a useful reference work, as it touches on most of the literature on the subject (although the bibliography is not exhaustive). But they will be left without a sense of the intellectual, institutional, or social context of science, and without a sense of the chronological development of the various research fields that relate to the origin of life.

Sharon Kingsland
Johns Hopkins University

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