The line between alive and dead is often murky, argues New York Times science columnist Carl Zimmer
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Posted: Apr 16, 2021 4:28 PM ET | Last Updated: April 16
Carl Zimmer s new book explores the nature of life, including questions like whether a cut rose is still alive.(Lisa Mariee Williams/Getty Images) comments
Quirks and Quarks17:03Contemplating what it means to be alive in the new book ‘Life’s Edge’
About 4 billion years ago, give or take a couple of hundred million years, the whole trouble started.
In a warm puddle, or perhaps around a geothermal vent in the deep ocean, or perhaps somewhere we haven t identified yet, a mixture of chemicals started to do something new something more complicated than they d done before. It was the dawn of life.