The Emergence Of Life

Author : Pier Luigi Luisi
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2006-07-13
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781139455640

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The Emergence of Life by Pier Luigi Luisi Pdf

The origin of life from inanimate matter has been the focus of much research for decades, both experimentally and philosophically. Luisi takes the reader through the consecutive stages from prebiotic chemistry to synthetic biology, uniquely combining both approaches. This book presents a systematic course discussing the successive stages of self-organisation, emergence, self-replication, autopoiesis, synthetic compartments and construction of cellular models, in order to demonstrate the spontaneous increase in complexity from inanimate matter to the first cellular life forms. A chapter is dedicated to each of these steps, using a number of synthetic and biological examples. With end-of-chapter review questions to aid reader comprehension, this book will appeal to graduate students and academics researching the origin of life and related areas such as evolutionary biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, biophysics and natural sciences.

Author : Iris Fry
Publisher : Rutgers University Press
Page : 348 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Science
ISBN : 0813527406

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The Emergence of Life on Earth by Iris Fry Pdf

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 : Eric Smith,Harold J. Morowitz
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 703 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2016-03-31
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781107121881

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The Origin and Nature of Life on Earth by Eric Smith,Harold J. Morowitz Pdf

Uniting the foundations of physics and biology, this groundbreaking multidisciplinary and integrative book explores life as a planetary process.

Author : Peter Ward,Joe Kirschvink
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 401 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2015-04-07
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781608199082

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A New History of Life by Peter Ward,Joe Kirschvink Pdf

The history of life on Earth is, in some form or another, known to us all--or so we think. A New History of Life offers a provocative new account, based on the latest scientific research, of how life on our planet evolved--the first major new synthesis for general readers in two decades. Charles Darwin's theories, first published more than 150 years ago, form the backbone of how we understand the history of the Earth. In reality, the currently accepted history of life on Earth is so flawed, so out of date, that it's past time we need a 'New History of Life.' In their latest book, Joe Kirschvink and Peter Ward will show that many of our most cherished beliefs about the evolution of life are wrong. Gathering and analyzing years of discoveries and research not yet widely known to the public, A New History of Life proposes a different origin of species than the one Darwin proposed, one which includes eight-foot-long centipedes, a frozen “snowball Earth”, and the seeds for life originating on Mars. Drawing on their years of experience in paleontology, biology, chemistry, and astrobiology, experts Ward and Kirschvink paint a picture of the origins life on Earth that are at once too fabulous to imagine and too familiar to dismiss--and looking forward, A New History of Life brilliantly assembles insights from some of the latest scientific research to understand how life on Earth can and might evolve far into the future.

Author : A. I. Oparin,A. E. Braunshteĭn,A. G. Pasynskiĭ
Publisher : Elsevier
Page : 708 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2013-09-03
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781483222400

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The Origin of Life on the Earth by A. I. Oparin,A. E. Braunshteĭn,A. G. Pasynskiĭ Pdf

The Origin of Life on the Earth covers the proceedings of the First International Symposium of The Origin of Life on the Earth, held at Moscow on August 19-24, 1957. This symposium brings together numerous scientific studies on the evolutionary principles and the different stages in the evolutionary development of matter. This book is organized into seven parts encompassing 60 chapters. The first parts discuss evidence that on the formation of hydrocarbons and their derivatives on the surface of the Earth even before the emergence of life. The subsequent parts are devoted to the many asymmetrical syntheses under the influence of circularly-polarized ultraviolet light, by catalytic reactions occurring on the surface of quartz crystals, and spontaneously by slow crystallization from solutions. These topics are followed by reviews on the possible means of abiogenic formation of amino acids, porphyrins, protein-like polymers, polynucleotides and other high-molecular organic compounds. Considerable chapters explore the complete possibility of the primary formation of these compounds on the surface of the Earth even before life was present on it. Other general topics covered include nucleic acids, nucleoproteins and viruses. The last part considers general biochemical problems connected with the further development of metabolism. This book will be of value to astronomers, physicists, geologists, chemists, and biologists.

Author : Michael J. Benton
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 185 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2008-11-27
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780199226320

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The History of Life: A Very Short Introduction by Michael J. Benton Pdf

This Very Short Introduction presents a succinct and accessible guide to the key episodes in the story of life on earth - from the very origins of life four million years ago to the extraordinary diversity of species around the globe today.

Author : Richard Cowen
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 832 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2013-01-22
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781118510933

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History of Life by Richard Cowen Pdf

This text is designed for students and anyone else with an interest in the history of life on our planet. The author describes the biological evolution of Earth’s organisms, and reconstructs their adaptations to the life they led, and the ecology and environment in which they functioned. On the grand scale, Earth is a constantly changing planet, continually presenting organisms with challenges. Changing geography, climate, atmosphere, oceanic and land environments set a stage in which organisms interact with their environments and one another, with evolutionary change an inevitable result. The organisms themselves in turn can change global environments: oxygen in our atmosphere is all produced by photosynthesis, for example. The interplay between a changing Earth and its evolving organisms is the underlying theme of the book. The book has a dedicated website which explores additional enriching information and discussion, and provides or points to the art for the book and many other images useful for teaching. See: www.wiley.com/go/cowen/historyoflife.

Author : Henry Gee
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
Page : 142 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2021-11-09
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781250276667

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A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth by Henry Gee Pdf

The Royal Society's Science Book of the Year "[A]n exuberant romp through evolution, like a modern-day Willy Wonka of genetic space. Gee’s grand tour enthusiastically details the narrative underlying life’s erratic and often whimsical exploration of biological form and function.” —Adrian Woolfson, The Washington Post In the tradition of Richard Dawkins, Bill Bryson, and Simon Winchester—An entertaining and uniquely informed narration of Life's life story. In the beginning, Earth was an inhospitably alien place—in constant chemical flux, covered with churning seas, crafting its landscape through incessant volcanic eruptions. Amid all this tumult and disaster, life began. The earliest living things were no more than membranes stretched across microscopic gaps in rocks, where boiling hot jets of mineral-rich water gushed out from cracks in the ocean floor. Although these membranes were leaky, the environment within them became different from the raging maelstrom beyond. These havens of order slowly refined the generation of energy, using it to form membrane-bound bubbles that were mostly-faithful copies of their parents—a foamy lather of soap-bubble cells standing as tiny clenched fists, defiant against the lifeless world. Life on this planet has continued in much the same way for millennia, adapting to literally every conceivable setback that living organisms could encounter and thriving, from these humblest beginnings to the thrilling and unlikely story of ourselves. In A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth, Henry Gee zips through the last 4.6 billion years with infectious enthusiasm and intellectual rigor. Drawing on the very latest scientific understanding and writing in a clear, accessible style, he tells an enlightening tale of survival and persistence that illuminates the delicate balance within which life has always existed.

Author : Richard Fortey
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 566 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2011-03-23
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780307761187

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Life by Richard Fortey Pdf

By one of Britain's most gifted scientists: a magnificently daring and compulsively readable account of life on Earth (from the "big bang" to the advent of man), based entirely on the most original of all sources--the evidence of fossils. With excitement and driving intelligence, Richard Fortey guides us from the barren globe spinning in space, through the very earliest signs of life in the sulphurous hot springs and volcanic vents of the young planet, the appearance of cells, the slow creation of an atmosphere and the evolution of myriad forms of plants and animals that could then be sustained, including the magnificent era of the dinosaurs, and on to the last moment before the debut of Homo sapiens. Ranging across multiple scientific disciplines, explicating in wonderfully clear and refreshing prose their findings and arguments--about the origins of life, the causes of species extinctions and the first appearance of man--Fortey weaves this history out of the most delicate traceries left in rock, stone and earth. He also explains how, on each aspect of nature and life, scientists have reached the understanding we have today, who made the key discoveries, who their opponents were and why certain ideas won. Brimful of wit, fascinating personal experience and high scholarship, this book may well be our best introduction yet to the complex history of life on Earth. A Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection With 32 pages of photographs

Author : National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
Publisher : National Academies Press
Page : 48 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Education
ISBN : 0309064066

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Science and Creationism by National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) Pdf

This edition of Science and Creationism summarizes key aspects of several of the most important lines of evidence supporting evolution. It describes some of the positions taken by advocates of creation science and presents an analysis of these claims. This document lays out for a broader audience the case against presenting religious concepts in science classes. The document covers the origin of the universe, Earth, and life; evidence supporting biological evolution; and human evolution. (Contains 31 references.) (CCM)

Author : National Research Council,Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences,Space Studies Board,Committee on Planetary Biology and Chemical Evolution
Publisher : National Academies Press
Page : 161 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 1990-02-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780309042468

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The Search for Life's Origins by National Research Council,Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences,Space Studies Board,Committee on Planetary Biology and Chemical Evolution Pdf

The field of planetary biology and chemical evolution draws together experts in astronomy, paleobiology, biochemistry, and space science who work together to understand the evolution of living systems. This field has made exciting discoveries that shed light on how organic compounds came together to form self-replicating molecules-the origin of life. This volume updates that progress and offers recommendations on research programs-including an ambitious effort centered on Mars-to advance the field over the next 10 to 15 years. The book presents a wide range of data and research results on these and other issues: The biogenic elements and their interaction in the interstellar clouds and in solar nebulae. Early planetary environments and the conditions that lead to the origin of life. The evolution of cellular and multicellular life. The search for life outside the solar system. This volume will become required reading for anyone involved in the search for life's beginnings-including exobiologists, geoscientists, planetary scientists, and U.S. space and science policymakers.

Author : Paul Davies
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 48,5 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 : Nick Lane
Publisher : Profile Books
Page : 569 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2015-04-23
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781847658807

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The Vital Question by Nick Lane Pdf

Why is life the way it is? Bacteria evolved into complex life just once in four billion years of life on earth-and all complex life shares many strange properties, from sex to ageing and death. If life evolved on other planets, would it be the same or completely different? In The Vital Question, Nick Lane radically reframes evolutionary history, putting forward a cogent solution to conundrums that have troubled scientists for decades. The answer, he argues, lies in energy: how all life on Earth lives off a voltage with the strength of a bolt of lightning. In unravelling these scientific enigmas, making sense of life's quirks, Lane's explanation provides a solution to life's vital questions: why are we as we are, and why are we here at all? This is ground-breaking science in an accessible form, in the tradition of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel.

Author : David Moore
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2013-01-24
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781139620659

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Fungal Biology in the Origin and Emergence of Life by David Moore Pdf

The rhythm of life on Earth includes several strong themes contributed by Kingdom Fungi. So why are fungi ignored when theorists ponder the origin of life? Casting aside common theories that life originated in an oceanic primeval soup, in a deep, hot place, or even a warm little pond, this is a mycological perspective on the emergence of life on Earth. The author traces the crucial role played by the first biofilms – products of aerosols, storms, volcanic plumes and rainout from a turbulent atmosphere – which formed in volcanic caves 4 billion years ago. Moore describes how these biofilms contributed to the formation of the first prokaryotic cells, and later, unicellular stem eukaryotes, highlighting the role of the fungal grade of organisation in the evolution of higher organisms. Based on the latest research, this is a unique account of the origin of life and its evolutionary diversity to the present day.

Author : John Desmond Bernal
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 1967
Category : Evolution
ISBN : MINN:319510004678511

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The Origin of Life by John Desmond Bernal Pdf