I read the foreword and never read any further. From the foreword, I learned that computer scientists don't talk about religion much at work. If I remember correctly—I'm writing this in 2015—Anne Foerst, who wrote the foreword, was given a grant to study this "problem". My immediate response was that, well, in most fields and jobs, in my experience, colleagues don't have deep from-the-heart discussions about religion. It's just not appropriate and, in most cases, it's not relevant to your job and your colleagues' jobs.

I probably should have continued reading to hear what Donald Knuth had to say, but I wasn't in the mood. Speaking of moods ...

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Essentially a Two Years Before the Mast for whaling boats and just as interesting. Bullen's use of flowery language seemed a bit forced for my taste; consequently, his book doesn't compare quite as favorably to Dana's plain-spoken work as it could have. Still, The Cruise of the Cachalot succeeds admirably in its purpose of detailing the life of a sailor on a whaling ship.

Project Gutenberg eBook: The Cruise of the Cachalot Round the World After Sperm Whales

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Project Gutenberg eBook: The Red House Mystery

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Project Gutenberg eBook: Montezuma's Daughter

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Project Gutenberg eBook: The Upper Berth

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H. Bedford-Jones eBooks are available at Project Gutenberg Australia (public domain in Australia).

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Project Gutenberg eBook: The World's Desire

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The book can be downloaded in PDF format from Chiles' fiction page.

The book's title promises an interesting read for the scientific layman - instead, I gave up about a third of the way into it. You really need a knowledge of and interest in the intricacies of cell biology to wade your way through the book. Try The New York Review of Books article linked below for a readable overview of Kirschner's and Gerhart's ideas.

Also see:

• WGBH's "Plausibility of Life" has the audio/video of a lecture on the subject by Mark Kirschner.
• The New York Academy of Sciences' "Resolving Evolution's Greatest Paradox" has the audio/video of a presentation by Mark Kirschner.
• "Evolving Evolution" in The New York Review of Books.

(2015: I never finished reading this; I should probably get back to it!)