Download or read book Marine Hydrothermal Systems and the Origin of Life written by N.G. Holm and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Research of the origins of life in connection with a marine environment started at the end of the seventies, when the `black smokers' in the Pacific were discovered and the Red Sea deep hydrothermal brines were found to be a fruitful environment for abiotic synthesis of life precursors. For a while this research was categorised under the heading `chemistry', but in less than a decade the topic became fully integrated into the science of 'oceanography'. The Scientific Committee on Oceanographic Research (SCOR) initiated Working Group 91: Chemical Evolution and Origin of Life in Marine Hydrothermal Systems'. This volume contains the final report of this working group.
Download or read book Marine Hydrothermal Systems and the Origin of Life written by and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Life in the Solar System and Beyond written by Barrie W. Jones and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2004-02-11 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Life in the Solar System and Beyond, Professor Jones has written a broad introduction to the subject, addressing important topics such as, what is life?, the origins of life and where to look for extraterrestrial life. The chapters are arranged as follows: Chapter 1 is a broad introduction to the cosmos, with an emphasis on where we might find life. In Chapters 2 and 3 Professor Jones discusses life on Earth, the one place we know to be inhabited. Chapter 4 is a brief tour of the Solar system, leading us in Chapters 5 and 6 to two promising potential habitats, Mars and Europa. In Chapter 7 the author discusses the fate of life in the Solar system, which gives us extra reason to consider life further afield. Chapter 8 focuses on the types of stars that might host habitable planets, and where in the Galaxy these might be concentrated. Chapters 9 and 10 describe the instruments and techniques being employed to discover planets around other stars (exoplanetary systems), and those that will be employed in the near future. Chapter 11 summarizes the known exoplanetary systems, together with an outline of the systems we expect to discover soon, particularly habitable planets. Chapter 12 describes how we will attempt to find life on these planets, and the final chapter brings us to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and the question as to whether we are alone.
Download or read book The Ecology of Deep sea Hydrothermal Vents written by Cindy Van Dover and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2000-03-26 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teeming with weird and wonderful life--giant clams and mussels, tubeworms, "eyeless" shrimp, and bacteria that survive on sulfur--deep-sea hot-water springs are found along rifts where sea-floor spreading occurs. The theory of plate tectonics predicted the existence of these hydrothermal vents, but they were discovered only in 1977. Since then the sites have attracted teams of scientists seeking to understand how life can thrive in what would seem to be intolerable or extreme conditions of temperature and fluid chemistry. Some suspect that these vents even hold the key to understanding the very origins of life. Here a leading expert provides the first authoritative and comprehensive account of this research in a book intended for students, professionals, and general readers. Cindy Lee Van Dover, an ecologist, brings nearly two decades of experience and a lively writing style to the text, which is further enhanced by two hundred illustrations, including photographs of vent communities taken in situ. The book begins by explaining what is known about hydrothermal systems in terms of their deep-sea environment and their geological and chemical makeup. The coverage of microbial ecology includes a chapter on symbiosis. Symbiotic relationships are further developed in a section on physiological ecology, which includes discussions of adaptations to sulfide, thermal tolerances, and sensory adaptations. Separate chapters are devoted to trophic relationships and reproductive ecology. A chapter on community dynamics reveals what has been learned about the ways in which vent communities become established and why they persist, while a chapter on evolution and biogeography examines patterns of species diversity and evolutionary relationships within chemosynthetic ecosystems. Cognate communities such as seeps and whale skeletons come under scrutiny for their ability to support microbial and invertebrate communities that are ecologically and evolutionarily related to hydrothermal faunas. The book concludes by exploring the possibility that life originated at hydrothermal vents, a hypothesis that has had tremendous impact on our ideas about the potential for life on other planets or planetary bodies in our solar system.
Download or read book Evolution of Hydrothermal Ecosystems on Earth and Mars written by Gregory R. Bock and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-30 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the possibility that life exists on Mars. It provides an interdisciplinary overview of the early evolution of life in hydrothermal ecosystems on Earth, focusing on the problem of remote sensing and incorporating geological work relevant to the search for evidence of early life on Earth and Mars. It discusses the belief that studying thermal spring deposits as part of this search may be the best opportunity to test whether life on earth is a "unique experiment," or whether there is life elsewhere in the solar system.
Download or read book The Origin of Life on the Earth written by A. I. Oparin and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2013-09-03 with total page 731 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Diversity of Hydrothermal Systems on Slow Spreading Ocean Ridges written by Peter A. Rona and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-05-02 with total page 1110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 188. Diversity of Hydrothermal Systems on Slow Spreading Ocean Ridges presents a multidisciplinary overview of the remarkable emerging diversity of hydrothermal systems on slow spreading ocean ridges in the Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic oceans. When hydrothermal systems were first found on the East Pacific Rise and other Pacific Ocean ridges beginning in the late 1970s, the community consensus held that the magma delivery rate of intermediate to fast spreading was necessary to support black smoker-type high-temperature systems and associated chemosynthetic ecosystems and polymetallic sulfide deposits. Contrary to that consensus, hydrothermal systems not only occur on slow spreading ocean ridges but, as reported in this volume, are generally larger, exhibit different chemosynthetic ecosystems, produce larger mineral deposits, and occur in a much greater diversity of geologic settings than those systems in the Pacific. The full diversity of hydrothermal systems on slow spreading ocean ridges, reflected in the contributions to this volume, is only now emerging and opens an exciting new frontier for ocean ridge exploration, including Processes of heat and chemical transfer from the Earth's mantle and crust via slow spreading ocean ridges to the oceans The major role of detachment faulting linking crust and mantle in hydrothermal circulation Chemical reaction products of mantle involvement including serpentinization, natural hydrogen, abiotic methane, and hydrocarbon synthesis Generation of large polymetallic sulfide deposits hosted in ocean crust and mantle Chemosynthetic vent communities hosted in the diverse settings The readership for this volume will include schools, universities, government laboratories, and scientific societies in developed and developing nations, including over 150 nations that have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Download or read book The Molecular Origins of Life written by André Brack and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-12-28 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 199 book reviews discoveries in astronomy, paleontology, biology and chemistry to help us to understand the likely origin of life on Earth.
Download or read book Handbook of Deep sea Hydrothermal Vent Fauna written by Daniel Desbruyères and published by Editions Quae. This book was released on 1997 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book RIDGE Events written by and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Assembling Life written by David W. Deamer and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019-01-04 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Assembling Life, David Deamer addresses questions that are the cutting edge of research on the origin of life. For instance, how did non-living organic compounds assemble into the first forms of primitive cellular life? What was the source of those compounds and the energy that produced the first nucleic acids? Did life begin in the ocean or in fresh water on terrestrial land masses? Could life have begun on Mars? The book provides an overview of conditions on the early Earth four billion years ago and explains why fresh water hot springs are a plausible alternative to salty seawater as a site where life can begin. Deamer describes his studies of organic compounds that were likely to be available in the prebiotic environment and the volcanic conditions that can drive chemical evolution toward the origin of life. The book is not exclusively Earth-centric, but instead considers whether life could begin elsewhere in our solar system. Deamer does not propose how life did begin, because we can never know that with certainty. Instead, his goal is to understand how life can begin on any habitable planet, with Earth so far being the only known example.
Download or read book Subseafloor Biosphere Linked to Hydrothermal Systems written by Jun-ichiro Ishibashi and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-01-10 with total page 666 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the comprehensive volume of the TAIGA (“a great river ” in Japanese) project. Supported by the Japanese government, the project examined the hypothesis that the subseafloor fluid advection system (subseafloor TAIGA) can be categorized into four types, TAIGAs of sulfur, hydrogen, carbon (methane), and iron, according to the most dominant reducing substance, and the chemolithoautotrophic bacteria/archaea that are inextricably associated with respective types of TAIGAs which are strongly affected by their geological background such as surrounding host rocks and tectonic settings. Sub-seafloor ecosystems are sustained by hydrothermal circulation or TAIGA that carry chemical energy to the chemosynthetic microbes living in an extreme environment. The results of the project have been summarized comprehensively in 50 chapters, and this book provides an overall introduction and relevant topics on the mid-ocean ridge system of the Indian Ocean and on the arc-backarc systems of the Southern Mariana Trough and Okinawa Trough.
Download or read book The Search for Life s Origins written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1990-02-01 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Life as We Do Not Know It written by Peter Ward and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007-02-27 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An engrossing and revelatory first look at the search for alien life—on Earth and beyond For the past twenty years, Peter Ward has been at the forefront of popular science writing, with books such as the influential and controversial Rare Earth. In Life as We Do Not Know It, Ward, with his signature blend of eloquence, humor, and learned insight, vividly details the latest scientific findings, cutting-edge research, and intrepid new theories on the subject of alien life and the possible extraterrestrial origins of life on Earth. In lucid, entertaining, and bold prose, Peter Ward once again challenges our notions of life on earth (and beyond).
Download or read book Energy and Mass Transfer in Marine Hydrothermal Systems written by Peter Halbach and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Earliest Life on Earth Habitats Environments and Methods of Detection written by Suzanne D. Golding and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-09-02 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume integrates the latest findings on earliest life forms, identified and characterised in some of the oldest rocks on Earth. New material from prominent researchers in the field is presented and evaluated in the context of previous work. Emphasis is placed on the integration of analytical methods with observational techniques and experimental simulations. The opening section focuses on submarine hot springs that the majority of researchers postulates served as the cradle of life on Earth. In subsequent sections, evidence for life in strongly metamorphosed rocks such as those in Greenland is evaluated and early ecosystems identified in the well preserved Barberton and Pilbara successions in Southern Africa and Western Australia. The final section includes a number of contributions from authors with alternate perspectives on the evidence and record of early life on Earth. Audience This volume will be valuable to researchers and graduate students in biogeosciences, geochemistry, paleontology and geology interested in the origin of life on earth.
Download or read book Hydrothermal Processes at Seafloor Spreading Centers written by Peter A. Rona and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-21 with total page 802 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the past ten years, evidence has developed to indicate that seawater convects through oceanic crust driven by heat derived from creation of lithosphere at the Earth-encircling oceanic ridge-rift system of seafloor spreading centers. This has stimulated multiple lines of research with profound implications for the earth and life sciences. The lines of research comprise the role of hydrothermal convection at seafloor spreading centers in the Earth's thermal regime by cooling of newly formed litho sphere (oceanic crust and upper mantle); in global geochemical cycles and mass balances of certain elements by chemical exchange between circulating seawater and basaltic rocks of oceanic crust; in the concentration of metallic mineral deposits by ore-forming processes; and in adaptation of biological communities based on a previously unrecognized form of chemosynthesis. The first work shop devoted to interdisciplinary consideration of this field was organized by a committee consisting of the co-editors of this volume under the auspices of a NATO Advanced Research Institute (ARI) held 5-8 April 1982 at the Department of Earth Sciences of Cambridge University in England. This volume is a product of that workshop. The papers were written by members of a pioneering research community of marine geologists, geophysicists, geochemists and biologists whose work is at the stage of initial description and interpretation of hydrothermal and associated phenomena at seafloor spreading centers.
