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Author: Charles B. Thaxton
Publisher:
Published: 2020-01-27
Total Pages: 486
ISBN-13: 9781936599745
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The origin of life from non-life remains one of the most enduring mysteries of modern science. This book investigates how close scientists are to solving that mystery and explores what we are learning about the origin of life from current research in chemistry, physics, astrobiology, biochemistry, and more.
Author: Ulrich C. Schreiber
Publisher: Springer Nature
Published: 2020-06-05
Total Pages: 186
ISBN-13: 3030453812
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This book introduces a fresh perspective on the conditions for the genesis of the first cell. An important possible environment of the prehistoric Earth has long been overlooked as a host to the perfect biochemical conditions for this process. The first complexes of continental crust on the early Earth must have already contained systems of interconnected cracks and cavities, which were filled with volatiles like water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen. This book offers insights into how these conditions may have provided the ideal physical and chemical setting for the formation of protocells and early stages of life. The authors support their hypothesis with a number of astonishing findings from laboratory experiments focusing on a variety of organic compounds, and on the formation of key cellular ingredients and of primitive cell-like structures. Moreover, they discuss the principles of prebiotic evolution regarding the aspects of order and complexity. Guiding readers through various stages of hypotheses and re-created evolutionary processes, the book is enriched with personal remarks and experiences throughout, reflecting the authors' personal quest to solve the mystery surrounding the first cell.
Author: Iris Fry
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Published: 2000
Total Pages: 348
ISBN-13: 9780813527406
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →How did life emerge on Earth? Is there life on other worlds? These questions, until recently confined to the pages of speculative essays and tabloid headlines, are now the subject of legitimate scientific research. This book presents a unique perspective--a combined historical, scientific, and philosophical analysis, which does justice to the complex nature of the subject. The book's first part offers an overview of the main ideas on the origin of life as they developed from antiquity until the twentieth century. The second, more detailed part of the book examines contemporary theories and major debates within the origin-of-life scientific community. Topics include: Aristotle and the Greek atomists' conceptions of the organism Alexander Oparin and J.B.S. Haldane's 1920s breakthrough papers Possible life on Mars?
Author: Pierre M. Durand
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2020-12-09
Total Pages: 236
ISBN-13: 022674793X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The question of why an individual would actively kill itself has long been an evolutionary mystery. Pierre M. Durand’s ambitious book answers this question through close inspection of life and death in the earliest cellular life. As Durand shows us, cell death is a fascinating lens through which to examine the interconnectedness, in evolutionary terms, of life and death. It is a truism to note that one does not exist without the other, but just how does this play out in evolutionary history? These two processes have been studied from philosophical, theoretical, experimental, and genomic angles, but no one has yet integrated the information from these various disciplines. In this work, Durand synthesizes cellular studies of life and death looking at the origin of life and the evolutionary significance of programmed cellular death. The exciting and unexpected outcome of Durand’s analysis is the realization that life and death exhibit features of coevolution. The evolution of more complex cellular life depended on the coadaptation between traits that promote life and those that promote death. In an ironic twist, it becomes clear that, in many circumstances, programmed cell death is essential for sustaining life.
Author: Paul Davies
Publisher: Penguin UK
Published: 2006-09-28
Total Pages: 320
ISBN-13: 0141941839
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The origins of life remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of science. 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. But the question remains: how can life spring into being from non-living chemicals? 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.
Author: P. C. W. Davies
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 1999
Total Pages: 308
ISBN-13: 068486309X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Explains our current knowledge about life's origins, focusing on recently discovered "superbugs" which may have arrived here on asteroids, and arguing that life grew from primitive information-processing systems.
Author: Stephen C. Meyer
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2009-06-23
Total Pages: 628
ISBN-13: 0061472786
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →"This book attempts to make a comprehensive, interdisciplinary case for a new view of the origin of life"--Prologue.
