Nothing concentrates the mind like tackling the largest of questions (What is life?) within the smallest of settings (the cell). In achieving this concentration, Harold invites general readers to join him on the very frontier of biological research, there to ponder the multilayered dynamics of the animate world. Though technical enough to discourage the casual browser, this explication of the inner workings of a humble bacterium initiates readers in just enough science to permit a serious engagement with fundamental theoretical questions: Where, for instance, does a strictly genetic approach to life lead us astray? Or, why must we invoke autopoiesis--and not just natural selection--in explaining biological order? Nonspecialists will find themselves richly rewarded for a little patience in following the careful and lucid answers to these and other fundamental questions. For Harold has cleared a path deep into the perplexities now confronting biological theorists. And with rare candor, he acknowledges when those perplexities push us to the limit of science, leaving us to wonder and guess. A work of marvelous penetration and scope. --Bryce Christensen