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The Mystery of Life

How Nothing Became Everything

Illustrated by Floor Rieder / Translated by Laura Watkinson

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About The Book

How did nonliving atoms evolve into modern people? Find out in this engaging illustrated exploration of how nothing became everything.

The science of evolution is a topic of utmost importance, especially as the focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education continues to increase. Fortunately, important doesn’t have to mean boring. From explaining how scientists discovered how life began on earth to speculating about whether space aliens are carnivores, this engaging investigation of all things evolution is infused with fun as well as facts.

Coupled with gorgeous illustrations, curious minds yound and old will discover how to build a planet, the truth about DNA, whether trees really want to be tall, how to survive without a butt, and much, much more!

Excerpt

The Mystery of Life



CHAPTER 1 Marvels, Mysteries, and You
Let’s just take a moment to applaud the slipper animalcule! Who? What? The slipper animalcule, also known as the paramecium, is a tiny creature that’s smaller than the dot on this i. But why should we celebrate it? What’s so special about it? This tiny little thing deserves a huge round of applause simply for being alive. That’s more of an achievement than you might think! And I’m going to tell you why.

Danish professor Henrik Schärfe has created a robot version1 of himself. When the professor and his robot are together, people have to look twice to tell which one is the person and which one is the machine. The robot can’t do very much at the moment. It can move a bit, but what it does best is look like its creator. It can’t do anything else. Not even talk. But I’ll eat a whole sack full of rabbit food if someone, at some point in the future, doesn’t design a robot that looks just like a person, that can give intelligent answers to your questions, and that can even play soccer with you. In fact, I think we’ll be smart enough to build one within 30 years. But making a slipper animalcule? That task is thousands of times trickier.



The tiny paramecium can’t do very much. It can swim a bit, doing the breaststroke with its minuscule hairs. It can drink dirty ditchwater and munch on the bacteria that are in the water. It can pee the water back out again. Well, it’s more like sweating than peeing. It can mate with another slipper animalcule. It can divide itself in two so that there are suddenly two slipper animalcules instead of one. What else can it do? Um . . . almost nothing at all.

The slipper animalcule might be capable of doing less than Professor Schärfe’s robot, but it can do one thing that a machine will never be able to: it can die. Of course, a robot can break, but that’s different. We can often repair something that’s broken, but we can never bring something back to life after it’s died. Life is very special, even though quintillions of creatures have already lived on Earth.

About The Author

Photograph courtesy of author

Jan Paul Schutten has been writing children's nonfiction books since 2003. A native of The Netherlands, his books are popular and critically acclaimed; he has won several awards including the Gouden Griffel (Golden Stylus) for his book Children of Amsterdam.

About The Illustrator

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Raves and Reviews

"A lighthearted view of the universe's progress, from the Big Bang to the evolution of bacteria, bonobos—and 'Joe Schmo from Buffalo.'...[Schutten's] overall account of life's origins and tenure is as rich in detail as it is entertaining."

– Kirkus Reviews

"Taking a big picture approach, he puts all the pieces of the puzzle that comprise our complex world into one accessible, entertaining title, using just the right mixture of fun facts, scientific information, and age-appropriate language....Interspersed liberally throughout the text are clear, rather playful illustrations, which add to the lighthearted and humorous tone. A great choice for libraries looking to bolster their STEM collection."

– School Library Journal

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