Origins Of Existence

Author : Fred C. Adams
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2010-05-11
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781439138205

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Origins of Existence by Fred C. Adams Pdf

In Origins of Existence astrophysicist Fred Adams takes a radically different approach from the long tradition of biologists and spiritual leaders who have tried to explain how the universe supports the development of life. He argues that life followed naturally from the laws of physics -- which were established as the universe burst into existence at the big bang. Those elegant laws drove the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets -- including some like our Earth. That chain of creation produced all the tiny chemical structures and vast celestial landscapes required for life. Ultimately, physical laws and the complexity they generate define the kind of biospheres that are possible -- from an Amazon rain forest to a frigid ocean beneath an ice sheet on a Jovian moon. Adams suggests that life was not merely some lucky break, but rather a natural outcome of the ascending ladder of complexity supported by our universe. Since our galaxy seems to harbor millions of planets with the same basic elements of habitability as Earth, the emergence of life is probably not a rare event. If life emerges deep inside planets and moons, as new research suggests happened on our planet, the number of viable habitats is truly enormous. Seven chronological chapters take the reader from the laws of physics and birth of the universe to the origins of life on Earth -- showing how energy flowed, exploded, and was repeatedly harnessed in replicating structures and organisms. In his groundbreaking first book, Fred Adams established the five eras of the universe with a focus on its long-term future. It is perhaps not surprising that he now turns his attention to the mystery of our astronomical origins. Here is a stunning new perspective, a book of genesis for our time, revealing how the laws of physics created galaxies, stars, planets, and even life in the universe.

Author : Fred Adams
Publisher : Plume
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : Humor
ISBN : UOM:39015061189638

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Our Living Multiverse by Fred Adams Pdf

Author : D. W. Deamer,Jack W. Szostak
Publisher : Cold Spring Harbor Perspective
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Science
ISBN : 193611304X

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The Origins of Life by D. W. Deamer,Jack W. Szostak Pdf

Life arose on Earth more than three billion years ago. How the first self-replicating systems emerged from prebiotic chemistry and evolved into primitive cell-like entities is an area of intense research, spanning molecular and cellular biology, organic chemistry, cosmology, geology, and atmospheric science. Written and edited by experts in the field, this collection from Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology provides a comprehensive account of the environment of the early Earth and the mechanisms by which the organic molecules present may have self-assembled to form replicating material such as RNA and other polymers. The contributors examine the energetic requirements for this process and focus in particular on the essential role of semi-permeable compartments in containment of primitive genetic systems. Also covered in the book are new synthetic approaches for fabricating cellular systems, the potentially extraterrestrial origin of life's building blocks, and the possibility that life once existed on Mars. Comprising five sections Setting the Stage, Components of First Life, Primitive Systems, First Polymers, and Transition to a Microbial World it is a vital reference for all scientists interested in the origin of life on Earth and the likelihood that it has arisen on other planets

Author : Douglas Whittet
Publisher : Morgan & Claypool Publishers
Page : 198 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2017-12-07
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781681746791

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Origins of Life by Douglas Whittet Pdf

Origins of Life: A Cosmic Perspective presents an overview of the concepts, methods, and theories of astrobiology and origins of life research while presenting a summary of the latest findings. The book provides insight into the environments and processes that gave birth to life on our planet, which naturally informs our assessment of the probability that has arisen (or will arise) elsewhere. In addition, the book encourages readers to go beyond basic concepts, to explore topics in greater depth, and to engage in lively discussions. The text is intended to be suitable for mid- and upper-level undergraduates and beginning graduate students and more generally as an introduction and overview for researchers and general readers seeking to follow current developments in this interdisciplinary field. Readers are assumed to have a basic grounding in the relevant sciences, but prior specialized knowledge is not required. Each chapter concludes with a list of questions and discussion topics as well as suggestions for further reading. Some questions can be answered with reference to material in the text, but others require further reading and some have no known answers. The intention is to encourage readers to go beyond basic concepts, to explore topics in greater depth, and, in a classroom setting, to engage in lively discussions with class members.

Author : Paul F. Lurquin
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2003-04-16
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780231507660

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The Origins of Life and the Universe by Paul F. Lurquin Pdf

The Origins of Life and the Universe is the culmination of a university science professor's search for understanding and is based on his experiences teaching the fundamental issues of physics, chemistry, and biology in the classroom. What is life? Where did it come from? How can understanding the origins of life on Earth help us understand the origins of the universe, and vice versa? These are questions that have occupied us all. This is a book, then, about the beginning of things—of the universe, matter, stars, and planetary systems, and finally, of life itself—topics of profound interest that are rarely considered together. After surveying prescientific accounts of the origins of life, the book examines the concepts of modern physics and cosmology, in particular the two pillars of modern physics, relativity and quantum theory, and how they can be applied to the Big Bang model of the creation of the universe. The author then considers molecular genetics and DNA, the famed building block of life. In addition to assessing various hypotheses concerning the appearance of the first bacterial cells and their evolution into more complex eukaryotic cells, this section explains how "protocells" may have started a kind of integrated metabolism and how horizontal gene transfer may have speeded up evolution. Finally, the book discusses the possibility that life did not originate on planet Earth but first appeared on other solar planets, or perhaps in other star systems. How would such a possibility affect our understanding of the meaning of life, or of its ultimate fate in the universe? The book ends as it begins, with profound questions and penetrating answers, a state-of-the-art guide to unlocking the scientific mysteries of life and matter.

Author : Geoffrey Zubay
Publisher : Elsevier
Page : 585 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2000-01-18
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780080497617

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Origins of Life by Geoffrey Zubay Pdf

Origins of Life on the Earth and in the Cosmos, Second Edition, suggests answers to the age-old questions of how life arose in the universe and how it might arise elsewhere. This thorough revision of a very successful text describes key events in the evolution of living systems, starting with the creation of an environment suitable for the origins of life. Whereas one may never be able to reconstruct the precise pathway that led to the origin of life on earth, one can certainly make some plausible reconstructions of it. Such discussions have greatly expanded our understanding of the principles of chemical evolution and how they compare and contrast with the principles of biological evolution. The text is strong on biochemistry and its recent applications to origins' research. Provides an excellent review of basic biochemistry an evolution Written in a clear, concise style for scientists, students, and readers interested in a scientific inquiry into the origins of life Written by an authority in the field, and brought fully up-to-date in light of new research Pulls together valuable information not found in a single source Organized and presented in a manner conductive for use in a college course Heavily illustrated to make difficult concepts concrete

Author : Freeman John Dyson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Life
ISBN : OCLC:931787275

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Origins of Life by Freeman John Dyson Pdf

Author : B. Hoyle,N.C. Wickramasinghe
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789401142977

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Astronomical Origins of Life by B. Hoyle,N.C. Wickramasinghe Pdf

Living material contains about twenty different sorts of atom combined into a set of relatively simple molecules. Astrobiologists tend to believe that abiotic mater ial will give rise to life in any place where these molecules exist in appreciable abundances and where physical conditions approximate to those occurring here on Earth. We think this popular view is wrong, for it is not the existence of the building blocks of life that is crucial but the exceedingly complicated structures in which they are arranged in living forms. The probability of arriving at biologically significant arrangements is so very small that only by calling on the resources of the whole universe does there seem to be any possibility of life originating, a conclusion that requires life on the Earth to be a minute component of a universal system. Some think that the hugely improbable transition from non-living to living mat ter can be achieved by dividing the transition into many small steps, calling on a so-called 'evolutionary' process to bridge the small steps one by one. This claim turns on semantic arguments which seek to replace the probability for the whole chain by the sum of the individual probabilities of the many steps, instead of by their product. This is an error well known to those bookies who are accustomed to taking bets on the stacking of horse races. But we did not begin our investigation from this point of view.

Author : Robert Jastrow,Michael Rampino
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2008-10-23
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780521825764

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Origins of Life in the Universe by Robert Jastrow,Michael Rampino Pdf

The most fascinating questions on the history of the Universe are answered in this text.

Author : Pierre M. Durand
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 236 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2020-12-09
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780226747934

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The Revolutionary Origins of Life and Death by Pierre M. Durand Pdf

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 : John Maynard Smith,Eörs Szathmáry
Publisher : Oxford University Press on Demand
Page : 191 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780192862099

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The Origins of Life by John Maynard Smith,Eörs Szathmáry Pdf

In this fascinating book, John Maynard Smith and Eors Szathmary present an original picture of evolution. They propose that during evolution there have been a number of major transitions in the way in which information is passed between generations. These transitions include the appearance ofthe first replicating molecules, the emergence of co-operative animal societies, and the unique language ability of humans. Containing many new ideas, this book is contemporary biology on the grandest scale, from the birth of life to the origin of language.

Author : Richard Egel,Dirk-Henner Lankenau,Armen Y. Mulkidjanian
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 363 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2011-08-31
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783642216251

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Origins of Life: The Primal Self-Organization by Richard Egel,Dirk-Henner Lankenau,Armen Y. Mulkidjanian Pdf

If theoretical physicists can seriously entertain canonical “standard models” even for the big-bang generation of the entire universe, why cannot life scientists reach a consensus on how life has emerged and settled on this planet? Scientists are hindered by conceptual gaps between bottom-up inferences (from early Earth geological conditions) and top-down extrapolations (from modern life forms to common ancestral states). This book challenges several widely held assumptions and argues for alternative approaches instead. Primal syntheses (literally or figuratively speaking) are called for in at least five major areas. (1) The first RNA-like molecules may have been selected by solar light as being exceptionally photostable. (2) Photosynthetically active minerals and reduced phosphorus compounds could have efficiently coupled the persistent natural energy flows to the primordial metabolism. (3) Stochastic, uncoded peptides may have kick-started an ever-tightening co-evolution of proteins and nucleic acids. (4) The living fossils from the primeval RNA World thrive within modern cells. (5) From the inherently complex protocellular associations preceding the consolidation of integral genomes, eukaryotic cell organization may have evolved more naturally than simple prokaryote-like life forms. – If this book can motivate dedicated researchers to further explore the alternative mechanisms presented, it will have served its purpose well.

Author : Paul Davies
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2006-09-28
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780141941837

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The Origin of Life by Paul Davies Pdf

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 : Fazale Rana,Hugh Norman Ross
Publisher : NavPress Publishing Group
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : Creationism
ISBN : 1576833445

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Origins of Life by Fazale Rana,Hugh Norman Ross Pdf

Imagine primordial Earth, a churning cauldron of liquefied rock. Steaming, seething -- a vast desolate wasteland, inhospitable to life. Yet somehow first life appeared. Maybe chemicals in a primordial soup spontaneously spawned a single-celled creature that continued to evolve. Or perhaps a transcendent Creator formed and nurtured the initial life forms. To determine what really happened requires a framework to evaluate the evidence. For the first time in print, Dr. Rana and Dr. Ross present a scientific model for the creation of first life on Earth -- a model based on the Bible. They present testable predictions for this life-origins scenario and for the competing naturalistic scenarios. Which model withstands the rigorous scrutiny of science and the tests of time? The one that does gives insight to a deeper question: Why would the first life forms precede human life by billions of years? Book jacket.

Author : André Brack
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 432 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 1998-12-28
Category : Science
ISBN : 0521564751

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The Molecular Origins of Life by André Brack Pdf

This 199 book reviews discoveries in astronomy, paleontology, biology and chemistry to help us to understand the likely origin of life on Earth.