Download or read book Abiogenesis from Molecules to Cells written by Paul D. Thompson and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the series of biochemical discoveries about the chemical makeup of protoplasm and how these relate to theories about the origins of life.
Download or read book The Emergence of Life written by Pier Luigi Luisi and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-07-13 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Molecular Theory of Evolution written by Bernd-Olaf Küppers and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The subject of this book is the physico-chemical theory of the origin of life. Although this theory is still in statu nascendi, it has been developed in recent years to the point where a coherent presentation is possible. The book is intended as an introductory text for students of physics, chemistry or biology. This interdisciplinary aim has necessitated a choice of material based on the lowest common denominator of physicists and biologists. In particular, the predominantly mathematical and biological sections have been presented at the most elementary l.evel possible. The less mathematically inclined reader can omit Sections (5.3)-(5.5), (5.7)-(5.10), (6.2), (6.3), (9.1)-(9.3), (12.1) and (13.3) without losing the overall view. For critical reading of the manuscript, for discussions and for many useful suggestions I wish to thank M. Eigen (Gottingen), w.e. Gardiner (Austin), D. Porschke (Gottingen), P. Schuster (Vienna), P.R. Wills (Auckland) and P. Woolley (Berlin). The translation of the original, German manuscript into English was kindly undertaken by Paul Woolley. During this and subsequent stages of revision he introduced a great many improvements in the text and the presentation of material. My particular thanks are due to him for his decisive contribution to this book. Last of all I wish to thank Ingeborg Lechten for typing the text in its various stages of evolution. The completion of this book is largely to be attributed to her patience and efficiency.
Download or read book Origin of Life written by and published by . This book was released on 2018-09-15 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abiogenesis, or informally the origin of life, is the natural process by which life arises from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The transition from non-living to living entities was not a single event, but a gradual process of increasing complexity. Researchers study abiogenesis through a combination of molecular biology, paleontology, astrobiology and biochemistry, and aim to determine how pre-life chemical reactions gave rise to life. The study of abiogenesis can be geophysical, chemical, or biological, with more recent approaches attempting a synthesis of all three, as life arose under conditions that are strikingly different from those on Earth today. Life functions through the specialized chemistry of carbon and water and builds largely upon four key families of chemicals: lipids (fatty cell walls), carbohydrates (sugars, cellulose), amino acids (protein metabolism), and nucleic acids (self-replicating DNA and RNA). Any successful theory of abiogenesis must explain the origins and interactions of these classes of molecules. Many approaches to abiogenesis investigate how self-replicating molecules, or their components, came into existence. Researchers generally think that current life on Earth descends from an RNA world, although RNA-based life may not have been the first life to have existed. This book is a compilation of high quality articles from the Internet.
Download or read book The Origins of Life Molecules and Natural Selection written by Leslie E. Orgel and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 1973 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Origins of Life written by D. W. Deamer and published by Cold Spring Harbor Perspective. This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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
Download or read book Life Evolving written by Christian De Duve and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2002 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Nobel laureate discusses findings in the biological sciences in the past half century and explains what they reveal about the nature of life.
Download or read book The Chemistry of Biology written by Armin Börner and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-02-14 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Living organisms are distinguished by their chemical basis. Thus, knowledge of the properties of the elements and the interactions of the resulting compounds is a prerequisite for understanding biology. Chemistry answers the questions of why, among the more than 100 elements of the periodic table (PSE), carbon and not silicon is the dominant element in biology and why precious metals, such as gold and silver, do not play a role. The PSE provides information about why phosphoric acid and not sulfuric acid acts as a bridge in polynucleic acids and why DNA had to evolve from RNA. At the same time, only chemistry makes clear why D-glucose is so central in building biopolymers such as cellulose and glycogen, and why the citrate cycle is logically self-contained and without alternative. Biochemistry is also a synthesis chemistry that differs from "man-made" synthesis chemistry "only" in terms of the framework conditions. Individuals are selected from the multitude of elements of the PSE and the almost infinite number of chemical compounds. The selection is based on the environmental conditions on Earth, such as moderate temperatures, preferably atmospheric pressure, solvent water and as primary reaction partner oxygen. The hypothesis is developed that the guiding principle of modern biology, the theory of evolution, has its roots in the underlying chemistry. This turns Darwinism from its biological head to its chemical feet. For example, the effect of phenols as radical scavengers is a priori chemical, before biological phenomena could evolve from it as differences in distinction in colored flowering plants. The book develops a completely new, chemistry-centered view of "animate nature" and challenges a changed, biologically oriented didactics of chemistry in schools and universities.
Download or read book Blueprint for a Cell written by Christian De Duve and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In narrative form the author, winner of the Nobel Prize, delineates the blueprint of life - the pattern of chemical events on which all life depends - and demonstrates unity in the diversity of life on earth.
Download or read book Abiogenesis written by Paul F. Kisak and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-08-12 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abiogenesis has become a maturing field of study as an alternative to the creationist or intelligent design theory of the origin of life on earth. Abiogenesis, Biopoiesis or OoL (Origins of Life), is the natural process of life arising from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. It is thought to have occurred on Earth between 3.8 and 4.1 billion years ago. Abiogenesis is studied through a combination of laboratory experiments and extrapolation from the characteristics of modern organisms, and aims to determine how pre-life chemical reactions gave rise to life on Earth. The study of abiogenesis involves geophysical, chemical, and biological considerations, with more recent approaches attempting a synthesis of all three. Many approaches investigate how self-replicating molecules, or their components, came into existence. It is generally thought that current life on Earth is descended from an RNA world, although RNA-based life may not have been the first life to have existed. The classic Miller-Urey experiment and similar research demonstrated that most amino acids, the basic chemical constituents of the proteins used in all living organisms, can be synthesized from inorganic compounds under conditions intended to replicate those of the early Earth. Various external sources of energy that may have triggered these reactions have been proposed, including lightning and radiation. Other approaches ("metabolism-first" hypotheses) focus on understanding how catalysis in chemical systems on the early Earth might have provided the precursor molecules necessary for self-replication. Complex organic molecules have been found in the Solar System and in interstellar space, and these molecules may have provided starting material for the development of life on Earth. The panspermia hypothesis alternatively suggests that microscopic life was distributed to the early Earth by meteoroids, asteroids and other small Solar System bodies and that life may exist throughout the Universe. Given the revised and more accurate models of "The Drake Equation" and the knowledge gained on the Tardigrade species, it is very probable that some simple form of life has been deposited on earth via asteroids, meteorites or some similar phenomena. It is speculated that the biochemistry of life may have begun shortly after the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago, during a habitable epoch when the age of the universe was only 10 to 17 million years. The panspermia hypothesis therefore answers questions of where, not how, life came to be; it only postulates that life may have originated in a locale outside the Earth. Currently, Earth remains the only place in the Universe observed to harbor life, and fossil evidence from the Earth supplies most studies of abiogenesis. Precambrian stromatolites were found in the Siyeh Formation of The Glacier National Park. A paper in the scientific journal "Nature" 2002 suggested that these 3.5 Ga (billion years) old geological formations contain fossilized cyanobacteriamicrobes. This suggests they are evidence of one of the earliest known life forms on Earth. The age of the Earth is about 4.54 billion years; the earliest undisputed evidence of life on Earth dates from at least 3.5 billion years ago, and possibly as early as the Eoarchean Era, after a geological crust started to solidify following the earlier molten Hadean Eon. Microbial mat fossils have been found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone in Western Australia. Other early physical evidence of biogenic substances includes graphite discovered in 3.7 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks in southwestern Greenland, as well as "remains of biotic life" found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia. According to one of the researchers, "If life arose relatively quickly on Earth ... then it could be common in the universe." This book discusses the various methods and Evidence for the development of life on Earth by natural means.
Download or read book The Emergence of Life written by Pier Luigi Luisi and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-15 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addressing the emergence of life from a systems biology perspective, this new edition has undergone extensive revision, reflecting changes in scientific understanding and evolution of thought on the question 'what is life?'. With an emphasis on the philosophical aspects of science, including the epistemic features of modern synthetic biology, and also providing an updated view of the autopoiesis/cognition theory, the book gives an exhaustive treatment of the biophysical properties of vesicles, seen as the beginning of the 'road map' to the minimal cell - a road map which will develop into the question of whether and to what extent synthetic biology will be capable of making minimal life in the laboratory. Fully illustrated, accessibly written, directly challenging the reader with provocative questions, offering suggestions for research proposals, and including dialogues with contemporary authors such as Humberto Maturana, Albert Eschenmoser and Harold Morowitz, this is an ideal resource for researchers and students across fields including bioengineering, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, chemistry and chemical engineering.
Download or read book Singularities written by Christian de Duve and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-10-24 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Erwin Schrödinger's What is Life? published 60 years ago, influenced much of the development of molecular biology. In this new book Christian De Duve, Nobel Laureate and pioneer of modern cell biology, presents a contemporary response to this classic, providing a sophisticated consideration of the key steps or bottlenecks that constrain the origins and evolution of life. De Duve surveys the entire history of life, including insights into the conditions that may have led to its emergence. He uses as landmarks the many remarkable singularities along the way, such as the single ancestry of all living beings, the universal genetic code, and the monophyletic origin of eukaryotes. The book offers a brief guided tour of biochemistry and phylogeny, from the basic molecular building blocks to the origin of humans. Each successive singularity is introduced in a sequence paralleling the hypothetical development of features and conditions on the primitive earth, explaining how and why each transition to greater complexity occurred.
Download or read book The Origin of Life written by Aleksandr Ivanovich Oparin and published by Courier Dover Publications. This book was released on 2003 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This classic of biochemistry offered the first detailed exposition of the theory that living tissue was preceded upon Earth by a long and gradual evolution of nitrogen and carbon compounds. "Easily the most scholarly authority on the question...it will be a landmark for discussion for a long time to come." — New York Times.
Download or read book Symbiogenesis written by Werner Schwemmler and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Origins of Life written by Cyril Ponnamperuma and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Beginnings of Cellular Life written by Harold J. Morowitz and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Develops a model of the origin of life in which cells originate first, proteins follow, and genes evolve last, which is supported by evidence mustered from biology, biochemistry, and biophysics. This work explores the origins of life and is for anyone who has ever thought seriously about the origin of life.
Download or read book First Life written by David Deamer and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
