"A highly readable survey of the historical prelude to the study of the origins of life, as well as selected areas of current research, including the search for extraterrestrial life."-NatureWhere did we come from? Did life arise on earth or on some other planet? What did the earliest primitive organisms look like? Untangling a century of contentious debate, the authors explore current theories of the source of life-from Martian meteors to hydrothermal vents-and then present their own elegant scenario: Life arose not in the subterranean depths, as many believe, but on Earth's tumultuous surface, where a primitive form of natural selection spawned the first genetic material, perhaps in the form of a proto-virus. Knowing exactly how life began on Earth will not only teach us more about ourselves, it will bring us closer to finding life elsewhere.
Author(s): Christopher Wills; Jeffrey Bada
Publisher: Basic Books
Year: 2001
Language: English
Commentary: +better version
Pages: 320
City: New York :
Cover
Back Cover
Title
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Where Did Life on Earth Come From?
Life's Beginnings
Life at the Present Time
1. The Rise and Fall of Spontaneous Generation
The World of the Very Small
Probing the Nature of Life
The Universe Is Dissymmetric!
The Battle Between Pasteur and Pouchet
The Battle of Tyndall's Boxes
Flash! Kelvin Traps Darwin in a Prison of Time!
Panspermia Brings Temporary Relief
2. Primordial Soup
Adding Ingredients to the Warm Little Pond
Making a Primordial Soup
Malting a World out of Glass
The Concentration Problem
False Starts in the Move Toward Greater Complexity
Working Toward the Golden Spike
3. The Earth's Apocalyptic Beginnings
Genesis of Our Solar System
An Infant Earth Gives Birth to a Moon!
A Hellish Young Earth
The Transition to a Habitable World
A Boiling Scylla or a Frozen Charybdis?
4. Prebiotic Soup: The Recipe
A Message from Outer Space
How Many Tureens of Soup?
Life's Seeds from Space?
A Primordial Oil Slick
Ventists
Life on the Rocks
5. Sorting Out the Gemisch
Enter Charles Darwin, Hesitantly
Deconstructing Darwin
The Buildup of Chemical Complexity
An Ancient Laboratory on the Beach
Winners and Losers in the Molecular World
Advancing Toward the Beginning
6. The First Protobionts
The RNA World
Was There a Pre-RNA World?
Peptide Nucleic Acids: A Glimpse of the First Genes?
Self-Replicating Peptides?
Life Is in the Bag, or Is It?
Darwin Takes Charge
7. From Top to Toe
The Origin of Energy-Utilizing Systems
Peter Mitchell's Battle with Conventional Wisdom
ATPase: The Core of Life
The Ancestor of the Robocop Enzyme
8. Journey to the Center of the Earth
Life in Unfamiliar Worlds
Oat Burners and Gypsum Reducers
Beyond the Familiar
Far from the Sun
Severing the Connection
A Byronic Catastrophe
Tracing the Bacterial Tree to Its Roots
New Possibilities for the Origin of Life
9. Evolution by Committee
The Early Days of Evolution
Backbones and Insect Wings
Reticulate Evolution
Chinese Boxes
Ancient Symbioses?
The Doolittle Event
Death and Resurrection
Catastrophe or Replacements?
Genetic Anarchy
10. Life Elsewhere
Planet of Smog
Listening for Life
The Properties of Extraterrestrial Life
Is Life Unique to Earth?
Moon Men
Venusian Life
Martians
A Habitable Early Mars?
Messengers from Mars
Swapping in the Solar System
Habitable Moons
Life Beneath the Ice
Life Beyond the Solar System
Life on Rogue Planets!
Can We Recognize Life if We Find It?
Finding Life on Planets Beyond the Solar System
What Would the Ultimate Discovery Tell Us?
11. Epilogue
Is It Truly Possible to Create Life in the Laboratory?
Glossary
Notes and References
Introduction
1. The Rise and Fall of Spontaneous Generation
2. Primordial Soup
3. The Earth's Apocalyptic Beginnings
4. Prebiotic Soup: The Recipe
5. Sorting Out the Gemisch
6. The First Protobionts
7. From Top to Toe
8. Journey to the Center of the Earth
9. Evolution by Committee
10. Life Elsewhere
11. Epilogue
Index
