Download or read book The Origin of Life written by Paul Davies and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2006-09-28 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
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 History of Life written by Richard Cowen and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-01-22 with total page 832 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The History of Life A Very Short Introduction written by Michael J. Benton and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-11-27 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book A New History of Life written by Peter Ward and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-04-07 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book A Very Short History of Life on Earth written by Henry Gee and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2021-11-09 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Life written by Richard Fortey and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-03-23 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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
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 The Emergence of Life on Earth written by Iris Fry and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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?
Download or read book Major Events in the History of Life written by J. William Schopf and published by Jones & Bartlett Learning. This book was released on 1992 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Major Events in the History of Life, present six chapters that summarize our understanding of crucial events that shaped the development of the earth's environment and the course of biological evolution over some four billion years of geological time. The subjects are covered by acknowledged leaders in their fields span an enormous sweep of biologic history, from the formation of planet Earth and the origin of living systems to our earliest records of human activity. Several chapters present new data and new syntheses, or summarized results of new types of analysis, material not usually available in current college textbooks.
Download or read book Life s Origin written by J. William Schopf and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2002-10-21 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Always a controversial and compelling topic, the origin of life on Earth was considered taboo as an area of inquiry for science as recently as the 1950s. Since then, however, scientists working in this area have made remarkable progress, and an overall picture of how life emerged is coming more clearly into focus. We now know, for example, that the story of life's origin begins not on Earth, but in the interiors of distant stars. This book brings a summary of current research and ideas on life's origin to a wide audience. The contributors, all of whom received the Oparin/Urey Gold Medal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life, are luminaries in the fields of chemistry, paleobiology, and astrobiology, and in these chapters they discuss their life's work: understanding the what, when, and how of the early evolution of life on Earth. Presented in nontechnical language and including a useful glossary of scientific terms, Life's Origin gives a state-of-the-art encapsulation of the fascinating work now being done by scientists as they begin to characterize life as a natural outcome of the evolution of cosmic matter.
Download or read book A Brief History of Life on Earth written by Clémence Dupont and published by Prestel. This book was released on 2018-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of life on earth unfolds in dramatic fashion in this amazing concertina picture book that takes readers from 4.6 billion years ago to the present day. Fully expanded to 8 meters (26 feet), this spectacular visual timeline is a very impressive panorama that reveals evolution in all its glory. Full color.
Download or read book The Vital Question written by Nick Lane and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A game-changing book on the origins of life, called the most important scientific discovery 'since the Copernican revolution' in The Observer.
Download or read book A Brief Illustrated History of Life on Earth written by Steve Parker and published by Capstone. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Brief Illustrated History of Life on Earth charts the evolution of living species all the way from 2.5 billion years ago, through the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods and right through to today. With stunning full-color images and illustrations, this beautiful book is sure to fascinate and charm the young reader.
Download or read book Origins of Life written by Geoffrey Zubay and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2000-01-18 with total page 585 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Origins of Life on the Earth and in the Cosmos, Second Edition, suggests answers to the age-old questions of how life arose in the universe and how it might arise elsewhere. This thorough revision of a very successful text describes key events in the evolution of living systems, starting with the creation of an environment suitable for the origins of life. Whereas one may never be able to reconstruct the precise pathway that led to the origin of life on earth, one can certainly make some plausible reconstructions of it. Such discussions have greatly expanded our understanding of the principles of chemical evolution and how they compare and contrast with the principles of biological evolution. The text is strong on biochemistry and its recent applications to origins' research. Provides an excellent review of basic biochemistry an evolution Written in a clear, concise style for scientists, students, and readers interested in a scientific inquiry into the origins of life Written by an authority in the field, and brought fully up-to-date in light of new research Pulls together valuable information not found in a single source Organized and presented in a manner conductive for use in a college course Heavily illustrated to make difficult concepts concrete
Download or read book Patterns and Processes in the History of Life written by D.M. Raup and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hypothesis testing is not a straightforward matter in the fossil record and here, too interactions with biology can be extremely profitable. Quite simply, predictions regarding long-term consequences of processes observed in liv ing organisms can be tested directly using paleontological data if those liv ing organisms have an adequate fossil record, thus avoiding the pitfalls of extrapolative approaches. We hope to see a burgeoning of this interactive effort in the coming years. Framing and testing of hypotheses in paleon tological subjects inevitably raises the problem of inferring process from pattern, and the consideration and elimination of a broad range of rival hy is an essential procedure here. In a historical science such as potheses paleontology, the problem often arises that the events that are of most in terest are unique in the history of life. For example, replication of the metazoan radiation at the beginning of the Cambrian is not feasible. How ever, decomposition of such problems into component hypotheses may at least in part alleviate this difficulty. For example, hypotheses built upon the role of species packing might be tested by comparing evolutionary dy namics (both morphological and taxonomic) during another global diversi fication, such as the biotic rebound from the end-Permian extinction, which removed perhaps 95% of the marine species (see Valentine, this volume). The subject of extinction, and mass extinction in particular, has become important in both paleobiology and biology.
Download or read book The Tangled Tree written by David Quammen and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2019-08-06 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this New York Times bestseller and longlist nominee for the National Book Award, “our greatest living chronicler of the natural world” (The New York Times), David Quammen explains how recent discoveries in molecular biology affect our understanding of evolution and life’s history. In the mid-1970s, scientists began using DNA sequences to reexamine the history of all life. Perhaps the most startling discovery to come out of this new field—the study of life’s diversity and relatedness at the molecular level—is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the movement of genes across species lines. It turns out that HGT has been widespread and important; we now know that roughly eight percent of the human genome arrived sideways by viral infection—a type of HGT. In The Tangled Tree, “the grandest tale in biology….David Quammen presents the science—and the scientists involved—with patience, candor, and flair” (Nature). We learn about the major players, such as Carl Woese, the most important little-known biologist of the twentieth century; Lynn Margulis, the notorious maverick whose wild ideas about “mosaic” creatures proved to be true; and Tsutomu Wantanabe, who discovered that the scourge of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a direct result of horizontal gene transfer, bringing the deep study of genome histories to bear on a global crisis in public health. “David Quammen proves to be an immensely well-informed guide to a complex story” (The Wall Street Journal). In The Tangled Tree, he explains how molecular studies of evolution have brought startling recognitions about the tangled tree of life—including where we humans fit upon it. Thanks to new technologies, we now have the ability to alter even our genetic composition—through sideways insertions, as nature has long been doing. “The Tangled Tree is a source of wonder….Quammen has written a deep and daring intellectual adventure” (The Boston Globe).
