Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.
Why is there life in the universe?
Tomonori Totani, Professor, Department of Astronomy

Tomonori Totani Why is there life in the universe? |
Kodansha Blue Books (2023) |
The origin of life is the ultimate and most difficult question in science. On the primitive earth (or somewhere in the universe), where life did not exist, chemical reactions proceeded according to the laws of physics, and suddenly "life" appeared, reproducing itself and evolving. This is a phase transition from a world in which atomic molecules reacted in a tasteless manner according to the laws of physics to a world in which the mysterious thing called life exists. Inevitably, to study the origin of life, one must confront both physics and biology, which is difficult. This is a difficult task, partly due to the two-subject system for university entrance examinations, which has made many Faculty of Science students unfamiliar with physics and biology, and vice versa.
The author, too, has long been unfamiliar with life, having spent many years in the world of physics and astronomy. However, in order to understand everything in the universe, we cannot escape from the question of how something so mysterious as life appeared in the universe. So I began to study, and in 2020 I came up with a new idea about the origin of life from the viewpoint of the inflationary universe and wrote a paper on it. The various things I learned about the origin of life in the process were so interesting that I compiled them into this book for the general public.
The author is a layman in the life sciences. The contents of this book may raise the eyebrows of some life experts. Nevertheless, I hope you will read this book with an open-minded interest, wondering how a physicist who studies the universe could come up with such a conclusion about the origin of life.