About the Authors: Harold J. Morowitz is the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Biology and Natural Philosophy at George Mason University and the author of The Thermodynamics of Pizza and Cosmic Joy and Local Pain. James S. Trefil is the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Physics at George Mason University. He is the coauthor of Dictionary of Cultural Literacy and Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy.

The book is concise, beautiful and intellectually high-powered, a reviewer's delight and the realization of every author's hope ... a volume which will keep readers from wool-gathering, no small feat with such dense, affect-laden material.

• 1. Framing the debate ; 2. The web of life ; 3. Conception ; 4. The emergence of humanness ; 5. The development of the fetus ; 6. The birth of the cortex ; 7. Survival outside the womb: Hitting the wall ; 8. Conclusions

About the Authors: Harold J. Morowitz is the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Biology and Natural Philosophy at George Mason University and the author of The Thermodynamics of Pizza and Cosmic Joy and Local Pain. James S. Trefil is the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Physics at George Mason University. He is the coauthor of Dictionary of Cultural Literacy and Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy.

The book is concise, beautiful and intellectually high-powered, a reviewer's delight and the realization of every author's hope ... a volume which will keep readers from wool-gathering, no small feat with such dense, affect-laden material.

• 1. Framing the debate ; 2. The web of life ; 3. Conception ; 4. The emergence of humanness ; 5. The development of the fetus ; 6. The birth of the cortex ; 7. Survival outside the womb: Hitting the wall ; 8. Conclusions

About the Authors: Harold J. Morowitz is the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Biology and Natural Philosophy at George Mason University and the author of The Thermodynamics of Pizza and Cosmic Joy and Local Pain. James S. Trefil is the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Physics at George Mason University. He is the coauthor of Dictionary of Cultural Literacy and Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy.

The book is concise, beautiful and intellectually high-powered, a reviewer's delight and the realization of every author's hope ... a volume which will keep readers from wool-gathering, no small feat with such dense, affect-laden material.

• 1. Framing the debate ; 2. The web of life ; 3. Conception ; 4. The emergence of humanness ; 5. The development of the fetus ; 6. The birth of the cortex ; 7. Survival outside the womb: Hitting the wall ; 8. Conclusions