Download or read book The Ethics of Protocells written by Gaymon Bennett and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teams of scientists around the world are racing to create protocells--microscopic, self-organizing entities that spontaneously assemble from simple organic and inorganic materials. The creation of fully autonomous protocells--a technology that can, for all intents and purposes, be considered literally alive--is only a matter of time. This book examines the pressing social and ethical issues raised by the creation of life in the laboratory. Protocells might offer great medical and social benefits and vast new economic opportunities, but they also pose potential risks and threaten cultural and moral norms against tampering with nature and "playing God." The Ethics of Protocells offers a variety of perspectives on these concerns.
Download or read book Protocells written by Steen Rasmussen and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2022-06-07 with total page 723 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive general resource on state-of-the-art protocell research, describing current approaches to making new forms of life from scratch in the laboratory. Protocells offers a comprehensive resource on current attempts to create simple forms of life from scratch in the laboratory. These minimal versions of cells, known as protocells, are entities with lifelike properties created from nonliving materials, and the book provides in-depth investigations of processes at the interface between nonliving and living matter. Chapters by experts in the field put this state-of-the-art research in the context of theory, laboratory work, and computer simulations on the components and properties of protocells. The book also provides perspectives on research in related areas and such broader societal issues as commercial applications and ethical considerations. The book covers all major scientific approaches to creating minimal life, both in the laboratory and in simulation. It emphasizes the bottom-up view of physicists, chemists, and material scientists but also includes the molecular biologists' top-down approach and the origin-of-life perspective. The capacity to engineer living technology could have an enormous socioeconomic impact and could bring both good and ill. Protocells promises to be the essential reference for research on bottom-up assembly of life and living technology for years to come. It is written to be both resource and inspiration for scientists working in this exciting and important field and a definitive text for the interested layman.
Download or read book Encountering Life in the Universe written by Chris Impey and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2013-10-17 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Encountering Life in the Universe examines the intersection of scientific research and society to determine the philosophy and ethics of relating to the Earth and beyond.
Download or read book Humanity s End written by Nicholas Agar and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2010-08-20 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An argument that achieving millennial life spans or monumental intellects will destroy values that give meaning to human lives. Proposals to make us smarter than the greatest geniuses or to add thousands of years to our life spans seem fit only for the spam folder or trash can. And yet this is what contemporary advocates of radical enhancement offer in all seriousness. They present a variety of technologies and therapies that will expand our capacities far beyond what is currently possible for human beings. In Humanity's End, Nicholas Agar argues against radical enhancement, describing its destructive consequences. Agar examines the proposals of four prominent radical enhancers: Ray Kurzweil, who argues that technology will enable our escape from human biology; Aubrey de Grey, who calls for anti-aging therapies that will achieve “longevity escape velocity”; Nick Bostrom, who defends the morality and rationality of enhancement; and James Hughes, who envisions a harmonious democracy of the enhanced and the unenhanced. Agar argues that the outcomes of radical enhancement could be darker than the rosy futures described by these thinkers. The most dramatic means of enhancing our cognitive powers could in fact kill us; the radical extension of our life span could eliminate experiences of great value from our lives; and a situation in which some humans are radically enhanced and others are not could lead to tyranny of posthumans over humans.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Astrobiology written by Ricardo Amils and published by Springer. This book was released on 2021-01-14 with total page 1853 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The interdisciplinary field of Astrobiology constitutes a joint arena where provocative discoveries are coalescing concerning, e.g. the prevalence of exoplanets, the diversity and hardiness of life, and its increasingly likely chances for its emergence. Biologists, astrophysicists, biochemists, geoscientists and space scientists share this exciting mission of revealing the origin and commonality of life in the Universe. The members of the different disciplines are used to their own terminology and technical language. In the interdisciplinary environment many terms either have redundant meanings or are completely unfamiliar to members of other disciplines. The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology serves as the key to a common understanding. Each new or experienced researcher and graduate student in adjacent fields of astrobiology will appreciate this reference work in the quest to understand the big picture. The carefully selected group of active researchers contributing to this work and the expert field editors intend for their contributions, from an internationally comprehensive perspective, to accelerate the interdisciplinary advance of astrobiology.
Download or read book The Ethics of Technological Risk written by Lotte Asveld and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-05-04 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A comprehensive and important collection that includes essays by some of the leading figures in the field. ...Essential reading for anyone interested in risk assessment.' Professor Kristin Shrader-Frechette, University of Notre Dame 'The editors are to be congratulated for bringing together a distinguished international group of theorists to reflect on the issues. This volume will be sure to raise the level of debate while at the same time showing the importance of philosophical reflection in approaches to the problems of the age.' Professor Jonathan Wolff, University College London This volume brings together top authors from the fields of risk, philosophy, social sciences and psychology to address the issue of how we should decide how far technological risks are morally acceptable or not. The underlying principles are examined, along with methodological challenges, public involvement and instruments for democratization. A strong theoretical basis is complemented by a range of case studies from some of the most contentious areas, including medical ethics and GM crops. This book is a vital new resource for researchers, students and anyone concerned that traditional approaches to risk management don't adequately address ethical considerations.
Download or read book Ethics and Emerging Technologies written by Ronald Sandler and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-30 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First and only undergraduate textbook that addresses the social and ethical issues associated with a wide array of emerging technologies, including genetic modification, human enhancement, geoengineering, robotics, virtual reality, artificial meat, neurotechnologies, information technologies, nanotechnology, sex selection, and more.
Download or read book Issues in Science and Technology written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The First Cell written by Ulrich C. Schreiber and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-06-05 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book introduces a fresh perspective on the conditions for the genesis of the first cell. An important possible environment of the prehistoric Earth has long been overlooked as a host to the perfect biochemical conditions for this process. The first complexes of continental crust on the early Earth must have already contained systems of interconnected cracks and cavities, which were filled with volatiles like water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen. This book offers insights into how these conditions may have provided the ideal physical and chemical setting for the formation of protocells and early stages of life. The authors support their hypothesis with a number of astonishing findings from laboratory experiments focusing on a variety of organic compounds, and on the formation of key cellular ingredients and of primitive cell-like structures. Moreover, they discuss the principles of prebiotic evolution regarding the aspects of order and complexity. Guiding readers through various stages of hypotheses and re-created evolutionary processes, the book is enriched with personal remarks and experiences throughout, reflecting the authors' personal quest to solve the mystery surrounding the first cell.
Download or read book Life Evolving written by Christian de Duve and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2002-10-17 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In just a half century, humanity has made an astounding leap in its understanding of life. Now, one of the giants of biological science, Christian de Duve, discusses what we've learned in this half century, ranging from the tiniest cells to the future of our species and of life itself. With wide-ranging erudition, De Duve takes us on a dazzling tour of the biological world, beginning with the invisible workings of the cell, the area in which he won his Nobel Prize. He describes how the first cells may have arisen and suggests that they may have been like the organisms that exist today near deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Contrary to many scientists, he argues that life was bound to arise and that it probably only took millennia--maybe tens of thousands of years--to move from rough building blocks to the first organisms possessing the basic properties of life. With equal authority, De Duve examines topics such as the evolution of humans, the origins of consciousness, the development of language, the birth of science, and the origin of emotion, morality, altruism, and love. He concludes with his conjectures on the future of humanity--for instance, we may evolve, perhaps via genetic engineering, into a new species--and he shares his personal thoughts about God and immortality. In Life Evolving, one of our most eminent scientists sums up what he has learned about the nature of life and our place in the universe. An extraordinarily wise and humane volume, it will fascinate readers curious about the world around them and about the impact of science on philosophy and religion.
Download or read book Molecular Evolution and Protobiology written by Koichiro Matsuno and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, an ever-increasing amount of research has been conducted on the physico-chemical basis of the origin and evolution of life, or protobiology. Many questions are raised in this endeavor: What research methodology should be employed? What sort of dependable facts are available as a firm frame of reference upon which the physico-chemical origin of life or protolife could be examined? Is the origin due exclusively to chance events? If not, what is then responsible for the origin? What physical reality underlies the evolutionarily selective process leading to the origin? What role does variation assume and how is it generated in the course of evolution? Many research workers have pursued various avenues toward answering the stated questions. Among them, we believe Sidney W. Fox has been playing a very unique and pivotal role over the past quarter of a century, presiding over 240 man-years or more of labo ratory work. His laboratory syntheses of thermal proteins called proteinoids and proteinoid micro spheres have emphasized the prin ciple of the self-sequencing of amino acids as a key concept of protobiological synthesis. The significance of his contribution is seen in presenting the experimental evidence that the origin of life is largely due to nonrandom events. This discovery marks a new epoch in the conceptual development of studying the origin of life by focusing on the molecular processes that underlied the emergence and evolution of protobiological information.
Download or read book The Minimal Cell written by Pier Luigi Luisi and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-11-01 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last ten years there has been a considerable increase of interest on the notion of the minimal cell. With this term we usually mean a cell-like structure containing the minimal and sufficient number of components to be defined as alive, or at least capable of displaying some of the fundamental functions of a living cell. In fact, when we look at extant living cells we realize that thousands of molecules are organized spatially and functionally in order to realize what we call cellular life. This fact elicits the question whether such huge complexity is a necessary condition for life, or a simpler molecular system can also be defined as alive. Obviously, the concept of minimal cell encompasses entire families of cells, from totally synthetic cells, to semi-synthetic ones, to primitive cell models, to simple biomimetic cellular systems. Typically, in the experimental approach to the construction of minimal the main ingredient is the compartment. Lipid vesicles (liposomes) are used to host simple and complex molecular transformations, from single or multiple enzymic reactions, to polymerase chain reactions, to gene expression. Today this research is seen as part of the broader scenario of synthetic biology but it is rooted in origins of life studies, because the construction of a minimal cell might provide biophysical insights into the origins of primitive cells, and the emergence of life on earth. The volume provides an overview of physical, biochemical and functional studies on minimal cells, with emphasis to experimental approaches. 15 International experts report on their innovative contributions to the construction of minimal cells.
Download or read book 2010 written by Redaktion Osnabrück and published by de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-06-16 with total page 764 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Assembling Life written by David W. Deamer and published by Academic. This book was released on 2019 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the possibilities of how life began on Earth four billion years ago
Download or read book Biological Autonomy written by Alvaro Moreno and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-05-04 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since Darwin, Biology has been framed on the idea of evolution by natural selection, which has profoundly influenced the scientific and philosophical comprehension of biological phenomena and of our place in Nature. This book argues that contemporary biology should progress towards and revolve around an even more fundamental idea, that of autonomy. Biological autonomy describes living organisms as organised systems, which are able to self-produce and self-maintain as integrated entities, to establish their own goals and norms, and to promote the conditions of their existence through their interactions with the environment. Topics covered in this book include organisation and biological emergence, organisms, agency, levels of autonomy, cognition, and a look at the historical dimension of autonomy. The current development of scientific investigations on autonomous organisation calls for a theoretical and philosophical analysis. This can contribute to the elaboration of an original understanding of life - including human life - on Earth, opening new perspectives and enabling fecund interactions with other existing theories and approaches. This book takes up the challenge.
Download or read book The Principles of Life written by Tibor Ganti and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2003-09-18 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning with a new essay, "Levels of Life and Death," Tibor Gánti develops three general arguments about the nature of life. In "The Nature of the Living State," Professor Gánti answers Francis Crick's puzzles about "life itself," offering a set of reflections on the parameters of the problems to be solved in origins of life research and, more broadly, in the search for principles governing the living state in general. "The Principle of Life" describes in accessible language Gánti's chief insight about the organization of living systems-his theory of the "chemoton," or chemical automaton. The simplest chemoton model of the living state consists of three chemically coupled subsystems: an autocatalytic metabolism, a genetic molecule and a membrane. Gánti offers a fresh approach to the ancient problem of "life criteria," articulating a basic philosophy of the units of life applicable to the deepest theoretical considerations of genetics, chemical synthesis, evolutionary biology and the requirements of an "exact theoretical biology." New essays by Eörs Szathmáry and James Griesemer on the biological and philosophical significance of Gánti's work of thirty years indicate not only the enduring theoretical significance, but also the continuing relevance and heuristic power of Gánti's insights. New endnotes by Szathmáry and Griesemer bring this legacy into dialogue with current thought in biology and philosophy. Gánti's chemoton model reveals the fundamental importance of chemistry for biology and philosophy. Gánti's technical innovation - cycle stoichiometry - at once captures the fundamental fact that biological systems are organized in cycles and at the same time offers a way to understand what it is to think chemically. Perhaps most fundamentally, Gánti's chemoton model avoids dualistic thinking enforced by the dichotomies of modern biology: germ and soma, gene and character, genotype and phenotype.
Download or read book Synthetic Biology written by Christina Smolke and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2018-02-28 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A review of the interdisciplinary field of synthetic biology, from genome design to spatial engineering. Written by an international panel of experts, Synthetic Biology draws from various areas of research in biology and engineering and explores the current applications to provide an authoritative overview of this burgeoning field. The text reviews the synthesis of DNA and genome engineering and offers a discussion of the parts and devices that control protein expression and activity. The authors include information on the devices that support spatial engineering, RNA switches and explore the early applications of synthetic biology in protein synthesis, generation of pathway libraries, and immunotherapy. Filled with the most recent research, compelling discussions, and unique perspectives, Synthetic Biology offers an important resource for understanding how this new branch of science can improve on applications for industry or biological research.
