Michael Marshall is a British science journalist whose articles regularly appear in the Observer, Nature, New Scientist and Telegraph. In addition, he is the editor of the Air Force Earth website. a well-known television channel specializing in scientific documentary. "The Great Quest" is the first book by Marshall, who has long and enthusiastically dealt with the global problem of the origin of life on Earth (or not on Earth, but in the depths of space?). The author interviewed many researchers, studied the legacy of those who timidly wondered about the origin of life in past centuries, and was surprised to find that science was seriously interested in finding an answer to this question only at the beginning of the last century. There are many theories of the emergence of the living, fierce disputes do not subside, and the author analyzes in detail the hypotheses, many of which seem very exotic.