“Fifty years ago, Francis Crick and James D. Watson discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, the carrier of genetic information, the basis for heredity. They believed they had, according to Francis Crick’s own expression, found “the secret of life.” The main aim of this book is to continue the story beyond the double helix and interpret recent developments through transformations that have occurred in biology in the last fifty years. These transformations are often unknown by the general public, as if molecular biology had remained stalled around the double helix. But the return of the question “What is life?” is also the result of events that have occurred outside biology, of a general evolution of ideas that we will undertake to investigate.” M. M.

Michel Morange is a biologist, and professor at the University of Paris-VI, and at the École normale supérieur. He is director of the Centre Cavaillès d’histoire et de philosophie des sciences. He is the author of La Part des gènes [The Misunderstood Gene]. 

1. Cover Page
2. Title Page
3. Copyright Page
4. Contents
5. Preface
6. Part one - THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF LIFE
   1. CHAPTER I - The Twilight of Life
   2. CHAPTER II - Life as Genetic Information
   3. CHAPTER III - The Return of Life
7. Part two - THE QUESTION IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
   1. CHAPTER IV - A Rich Heritage
   2. CHAPTER V - Contemporary Answers
8. Part three - CONTRIBUTIONS OF CURRENT RESEARCH
   1. CHAPTER VI - Looking for Life's Past
   2. CHAPTER VII - Retracing the Path of Life
   3. CHAPTER VIII - Reading the Palimpsest of Life
   4. CHAPTER IX - Life Under Extreme Conditions
   5. CHAPTER X - The Search for a Minimal Genome
   6. CHAPTER XI - Astrobiological Investigations
   7. CHAPTER XII - Life as a Living System
9. Part four - A FEW NECESSARILY PROVISIONAL CONCLUSIONS
   1. CHAPTER XIII - Objections and Replies
   2. CHAPTER XIV - Darwinism in Its Proper Place
   3. CHAPTER XV - The Lure of Complexity
   4. CHAPTER XVI - The Three Pillars of Life
10. Conclusion
11. Notes
12. Bibliography
13. Index