The Feathered Onion - Creation of Life in the Universe
by Clive Trotman
"... three great stories in science: where the universe came from, where life came from, and where we came from. In shining a torch on one, Clive Trotman lights up all three ...
... read Trotman, an expert in those hardy microbes, the extremophiles...
...Read him to understand what hurdles complex life - and modern single-celled bacteria are pretty complex creatures - had to overcome to get going ... He bats down some of the creationist objections ...
... a brilliant introduction to meteors, comets and asteroids.
This isn't just a book about scientific thinking: this is a book about how scientists think, and much the better for it."
See also quotations in Tim Radford's powerful and amusing article in The Guardian (2005): "Come out, come out, wherever you are"
" ... this is a respected scientist asking and attempting to answer some very awkward questions."
"In doing so he traverses an impressive array of disciplines: chemistry, zoology, molecular biology, astronomy, geology, and astrophysics, to name but a few. ... He has gently introduced me to early and late introns, histone bobbins, parsecs and megaparsecs, rubisco and the Hubble constant, among other things. Thankfully, there is a glossary that allows me the comfort of checking my understanding of such terms... "
" ... I might add he is an extremely good writer and would-be writers of popular science could do no better than peruse his work with a view to using it as a primer."
"...Trotman's thoughts are ingenious and plausible, and his analysis of hard questions about the subject is insightful..."
" ... an unusual and fascinating look at the origins of life on earth ... don't hold your breath in the hope of finding life elsewhere in the universe today ..."
Placing The Feathered Onion in context, Korthof says:
"The alternative view is the panspermia theory. Life came from space and either was brought by comets to the Earth (Fred Hoyle The Intelligent Universe; Wickramasinghe (15)), or by a spaceship. This last option was defended by the Nobel Prize winner Francis Crick (1981) in a short popular book Life Itself. Its Origin and Nature (8).
An up-to-date, important, well argued, original and powerful defence of the panspermia hypothesis is biologist Clive Trotman (2004) The Feathered Onion. Creation of Life in the Universe. Trotman argues that the time for life to originate from scratch on earth is too short. Clear thinking, clear writing.
Very attractively designed book."
Korthof also says
"The Feathered Onion is far more than a defence of panspermia. Trotman's book is a courageous, ingenious and successful attempt to identify irreducible complexity as the essence of life, without resorting to intelligent design. The book itself is a pleasure to read, well designed, and accessible. High value, low price."
Gert Korthof's excellent website provides his own detailed reviews of many books on evolution and the origin of life. His review of The Feathered Onion runs to about 4 pages.
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Full title: The Feathered Onion -
Creation of Life in the Universe
Author: Clive Trotman
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Format: Paperback July 2004
ISBN: 0470871873
Cover price: $19.95 US
Click here for information About the Author
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