The First Steps of Life

• Record Nr.: UNINA9911019524703321
• Autore: Di Mauro Ernesto
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Newark : , : John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, , 2024; ©2024
• ISBN: 9781394264155; 1394264151; 9781394264131; 1394264135
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (269 pages)
• Disciplina: 577
• Soggetti: Exobiology; Life sciences
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Nota di contenuto: Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. The Emergence of Life-Nurturing Conditions in the Universe -- 1.1. Defining properties of life -- 1.1.1. Implications of the defining properties -- 1.2. Life-supporting conditions and environments -- 1.2.1. Chemical ingredients -- 1.2.2. Physical conditions -- 1.2.3. Habitable worlds -- 1.3. Setting the stage for chemistry and life in the Universe -- 1.3.1. Births of the laws of chemistry -- 1.3.2. Production of chemical elements -- 1.3.3. Assemblage of prebiotic molecules -- 1.3.4. Origin of water -- 1.3.5. Appearance of rocky planets -- 1.4. The habitable Universe -- 1.4.1. Circumstellar habitable zones -- 1.4.2. Galactic habitable zones -- 1.5. Planetary environments suitable for the origin of life -- 1.5.1. Abiogenesis on planetary surfaces -- 1.5.2. Abiogenesis in the oceans -- 1.5.3. Implications for the search for life outside Earth -- 1.6. The quest for inhabited worlds -- 1.7. References -- Chapter 2. Chirality and the Origins of Life -- 2.1. Introduction to chirality -- 2.2. The asymmetry of life -- 2.3. The origin of homochirality -- 2.3.1. Stochastic theories -- 2.3.2. Deterministic theories -- 2.4. Space missions and the search for life and its origins -- 2.4.1. Rosetta -- 2.4.2. ExoMars -- 2.5. References -- Chapter 3. ; The Role of Formamide in Prebiotic Chemistry -- 3.1. Introduction -- 3.2. Effect of minerals and self-organization in the prebiotic chemistry of formamide -- 3.2.1. Surface catalysis and geochemical scenarios -- 3.2.2. Chemomimesis, circularity and thermodynamic niches -- 3.2.3. Nucleosides phosphorylation -- 3.3. Continuity and mineral complexity -- 3.4. Energy-driven selectivity -- 3.5. References -- Chapter 4. A Praise of Imperfection: Emergence and Evolution of Metabolism -- 4.1. From Darwin to Jacob: perfection does not exist.; 4.2. Protometabolic networks -- 4.3. Enzyme promiscuity and metabolic innovation -- 4.4. Promiscuity, moonlighting and the essence of life -- 4.5. Acknowledgments -- 4.6. References -- Chapter 5. Viruses, Viroids and the Origins of Life -- 5.1. How were viruses discovered? A brief history -- 5.2. Viral diversity -- 5.3. Viral structure and function -- 5.4. Viruses and mammalian genomes -- 5.5. Role of viruses in human evolution, health and disease -- 5.6. Viroids may be a link to ancient evolutionary pathways -- 5.7. Origin and evolution of viroids -- 5.8. Conclusion -- 5.9. References -- Chapter 6. Is the Heterotrophic Theory of the Origin of Life Still Valid? -- 6.1. Introduction -- 6.2. The roaring 20s -- 6.3. Coacervates as models of precellular structures -- 6.4. Precellular evolution and the emergence of cells -- 6.5. Final remarks: does Oparin still matter? -- 6.6. Acknowledgments -- 6.7. References -- Chapter 7. Making Biochemistry-Free (Generalized) Life in a Test Tube -- 7.1. Summary -- 7.2. Introduction and background -- 7.3. Laboratory implementation of an artificial autonomous, and self-organized functional system -- 7.4. More physics and chemistry working together: phoenix, self-reproduction via spores, population growth and chemotaxis -- 7.5. Discussion and conclusions -- 7.6. Acknowledgments -- 7.7. Appendices: Some additional emergent features in PISA "powered" synthetic biochemistry free protocells -- 7.7.1. Chemotactic behavior -- 7.7.2. Adaptive behavior and click-PISA -- 7.7.3. Competitive exclusion principle and iniferter PISA -- 7.7.4. PISA and its control by chemical automata -- 7.7.5. Integrating PISA and information control with the Belousov-Zhabotinsky chemical reaction -- 7.8. References -- Chapter 8. Hydrothermalism for the Chemical Evolution Toward the Simplest Life-Like System on the Hadean Earth -- 8.1. Introduction.; 8.1.1. Realistic life-like systems on the Hadean Earth -- 8.1.2. Water in universe -- 8.1.3. Two-gene hypothesis, minerals and high temperature -- 8.2. Hydrothermal environment for the chemical evolution of biomolecules -- 8.2.1. As an energy source -- 8.2.2. Temperature and pressure -- 8.2.3. Biochemical interactions -- 8.2.4. Minerals and the thermodynamically open system -- 8.3. Hydrothermal methodologies regarding the origin-of-life study -- 8.3.1. Technical background of research tools for hydrothermal reactions -- 8.3.2. Recent development using flow system -- 8.4. RNA world versus hydrothermalism -- 8.4.1. Stability and accumulation of RNA -- 8.4.2. RNA-based life-like system under hydrothermal environments -- 8.5. Future outlook and conclusions -- 8.6. Acknowledgments -- 8.7. References -- Chapter 9. Studies in Mineral-Assisted Protometabolisms -- 9.1. Metabolism, protometabolism and minerals -- 9.2. Adsorption on mineral surfaces -- 9.2.1. Adsorption mechanisms -- 9.2.2. Adsorption selectivities -- 9.3. Mineral surfaces and reaction thermodynamics -- 9.3.1. Minerals as reagents -- 9.3.2. Concentrating reagents from the solution -- 9.3.3. Altering free enthalpies of reaction -- 9.3.4. Platforms to capture free energy from macroscopic sources (space gradients and time fluctuations) -- 9.4. Minerals and reaction kinetics: heterogeneous catalysis -- 9.4.1. Lessons from industrial heterogeneous catalysis -- 9.4.2. What can heterogeneous catalysts ; do? -- 9.4.3. Reaction selectivity -- 9.5. A case study: primordial synthesis of pyrimidines -- 9.6. Conclusion -- 9.7. References -- Chapter 10. A Rationale for the Evolution of the Genetic Code in Relation to the Stability of RNA and Protein Structures -- 10.1. Introduction -- 10.2. Codon-anticodon recognition -- 10.3. Concluding remarks -- 10.4. Acknowledgments -- 10.5. References -- List of Authors.; Index -- EULA.
• Sommario/riassunto: This book explores the origins and early development of life in the universe, examining the conditions necessary for life to emerge. It delves into the defining properties of life, the chemical and physical conditions conducive to life, and the formation of habitable worlds. The text also discusses the role of chirality, prebiotic chemistry, and metabolism in the evolution of life. The work is aimed at an audience interested in astrobiology, exobiology, and the scientific study of life's beginnings, providing insights into the quest for inhabited worlds beyond Earth.

Empire, development & colonialism : the past in the present / / edited by Mark Duffield, Vernon Hewitt

• Record Nr.: UNINA9911008967203321
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Suffolk : , : Boydell & Brewer, , 2009
• ISBN: 1-282-98818-2; 9786612988189; 1-84615-717-X
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (xii, 211 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)
• Disciplina: 327.101
• Soggetti: Colonies - Administration - History; Humanitarian intervention - Decision making; International relations - History
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 08 Oct 2015).
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: The exceptional inclusion of 'savages' & 'barbarians' : the colonial liberal bio-politics of mobility & development / Matthew Merefield -- Empire, international development & the concept of good government / Vernon Hewitt -- Empire : a question of hearts? : the social turn in colonial government Bombay c. 1905-1925 / Henrik Aspengren -- 'Conflict-sensitive' aid & making liberal peace / Suthaharan Nadarajah -- Development, poverty & famines : the case of British Empire / Richard Sheldon -- Plain tales from the reconstruction site : spatial continuities in contemporary humanitarian practice / Lisa Smirl -- The international politics of social transformation : trusteeship & intervention in historical perspective / David Williams & Tom Young -- Liberal interventionism & the fragile state : linked by design? / Mark Duffield -- Freedom, fear & NGOs : balancing discourses of violence & humanity in securitising times / Patricia Noxolo -- Theorising continuities between empire & development : toward a new theory of history / April R. Biccum -- Spatial practices & imaginaries : experiences of colonial officers & development professionals / Uma Kothari -- Decolonising the borders in Sudan : ethnic territories & national development / Douglas H. Johnson -- 'Individualism is, indeed, running riot' : components of the social democratic model of development / Paul Kelemen.
• Sommario/riassunto: The parallels between the language of nineteenth-century liberal imperialism and the humanitarian interventionism of the post-Cold War era are striking. The American military, both in Somalia in the early 1990s and in the aftermath the Iraq invasion, used ethnographic information compiled by British colonial administrators. Are these interconnections, which are capable of endless multiplication, accidental curiosities or more elemental? The contributors to this book articulate the belief that these comparisons are not just anecdotal but are analytically revealing. From the language of moral necessity and conviction, the design of specific aid packages; the devised forms of intervention and governmentality, through to the life-style, design and location of NGO encampments, the authors seek to account for the numerous and often striking parallels between contemporary international security, development and humanitarian intervention, and the logic of Empire. MARK DUFFIELD is Professor of Development Politics at the University of Bristol; VERNON HEWITT is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Bristol.