Prologue

1. Exploring the First Genomes

2. The Alphabetic Metaphor of Heredity

3. What Genomes Can Teach Us

4. Information and Creation

5. What Is Life?

Epilogue: Morality Intrudes

A Brief Glossary

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index

Antoine Danchin is Professor and Head of the Unit of Genetics of Bacterial Genomes at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and Director of the HKU–Pasteur Research Center in Hong Kong.