First life [[electronic resource] ] : discovering the connections between stars, planets, and evolution on earth / / David Deamer

• Autore: Deamer D. W
• Pubblicazione: Berkeley, : University of California Press, 2011
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (283 p.)
• Disciplina: 576.8/3
• Soggetto topico: Exobiology; Life - Origin; Evolution (Biology)
• Soggetto non controllato: advances in science; astrobiology; astronomy; atmosphere; biology; bioscience; birth of stars; carbon compounds; carbon; chemistry; cosmology; death of stars; ethics; evolution; life on earth; life sciences; life; minerals; nonfiction; origin of life; physics; planet formation; planetary science; science and technology; science; spark of life; stardust; stars; synthetic life; technology; volcanoes; water
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Front matter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- 1. A Fireball Over Australia -- 2. Where Did Life Begin? -- 3. When Did Life Begin? -- 4. Carbon and the Building Blocks of Life -- 5. The Handedness of Life -- 6. Energy and Life's Origins -- 7. Self-Assembly and Emergence -- 8. How To Build a Cell -- 9. Achieving Complexity -- 10. Multiple Strands of Life -- 11. Catalysts: Life in the Fast Lane -- 12. Copying Life's Blueprints -- 13. How Evolution Begins -- 14. A Grand Simulation of Prebiotic Earth -- 15. Prospects for Synthetic Life -- Epilogue -- Sources and Notes -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: This pathbreaking book explores how life can begin, taking us from cosmic clouds of stardust, to volcanoes on Earth, to the modern chemistry laboratory. Seeking to understand life's connection to the stars, David Deamer introduces astrobiology, a new scientific discipline that studies the origin and evolution of life on Earth and relates it to the birth and death of stars, planet formation, interfaces between minerals, water, and atmosphere, and the physics and chemistry of carbon compounds. Deamer argues that life began as systems of molecules that assembled into membrane-bound packages. These in turn provided an essential compartment in which more complex molecules assumed new functions required for the origin of life and the beginning of evolution. Deamer takes us from the vivid and unpromising chaos of the Earth four billion years ago up to the present and his own laboratory, where he contemplates the prospects for generating synthetic life. Engaging and accessible, First Life describes the scientific story of astrobiology while presenting a fascinating hypothesis to explain the origin of life.
• Titolo autorizzato: First life
• ISBN: 1-283-27802-2; 9786613278029; 0-520-94895-5
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Record Nr.: 9910824014703321
• Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II