In 'The Fifth Miracle' acclaimed scientist and scientist Paul Davies examines the very latest theories of biogenesis. Recent discoveries of bizarre "living fossils" in the hot crust of the Earth, and possible traces of bacteria in a Martian meteorite, have forced a radical rethinking about the earliest living things Growing evidence suggests that the first organisms lived deep underground, in environments previously thought to be uninhabitable, and that microbes carried inside rocks have travelled between Earth and Mars - and perhaps elsewhere through space.

'The Fifth Miracle' reveals the remarkable new theories and discoveries that seem set to transform our understanding of life's role in the unfolding drama of the cosmos.