Why are water and carbon so essential for life? How does life use solar energy to keep the cell in order? Why is life without Darwinian evolution unthinkable? Where did life originate, and what are the milestones in its history? How does cultural evolution complicate things when human intelligence emerges? Ultimately, how does cultural evolution affect the biology, health, and psyche of Homo sapiens?

Is there life elsewhere in the Universe? If so, did it remain simple or evolve to the point of intelligence and technological civilization? And, in the end, what is intelligence? If other civilizations indeed exist, why don't they show signs of life? Could the coincidences in Earth's case have scandalously favored the emergence of intelligence? Could we be a rare, peculiar, perhaps even unique case?

What is the future of life and humanity? Where can the interaction of planetary, geological, biological, cultural, and technological evolution lead? Do overpopulation, resource depletion, climate change, and biodiversity loss threaten life, especially humans? Or only the social, political, and economic structures of humanity as they have developed over the last millennia? Do we all have an expiration date?

This book does not require specialized scientific knowledge. It is aimed at the curious reader who wants to understand the world around them and place themselves within it. It is also aimed at the specialist who wants to rediscover the fundamental concepts of biological science. The exploration of the phenomenon of life will never cease to be fascinating!