Summary of Making Sense of Life

Making Sense of Life is a book by award-winning author J. Scott Turner that examines the mysteries of life through the lens of the physical and biological sciences. It combines fascinating insights from physics, chemistry, geology, evolutionary biology, and psychology to explore questions of origin, meaning, and purpose in life, and to seek deeper understanding of its complexities. The book begins by looking at the most basic and fundamental components of life, and reveals how each and every one of them has evolved over time. It then moves on to discuss the more recently developed concepts of self-reflective thinking, consciousness, and the human ability to reason. After exploring these more advanced powers, the book takes a survey of the big implications of how humans think and act, and considers how these impacts might shape the future of our planet. Finally, readers are left with a grand vision of connectivity between all parts of life, and an appreciation of the complex processes that make life so dynamic and beautiful.