From Suns to Life: A Chronological Approach to the History of Life on Earth

Muriel Gargaud, Philippe Claeys, Purificación López-García, Hervé Martin, Thierry Montmerle (Herausgeber)

Buch | Hardcover

370 Seiten

2006 | 2006 ed.
Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
978-0-387-45082-7 (ISBN)

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This review emerged from several interdisciplinary meetings and schools gathering a group of astronomers, geologists, biologists, and chemists, attempting to share their specialized knowledge around a common question: how did life emerge on Earth? Their ultimate goal was to provide some kind of answer as a prerequisite to an even more demanding question: is life universal? The resulting state-of-the-art articles were written by twenty-five scientists telling a not-so linear story, but on the contrary, highlighting problems, gaps, and controversies. Needless to say, this approach yielded no definitive answers to both questions. However, by adopting a chronological approach to the question of the emergence of life on Earth, the only place where we know for sure that life exists; it was possible to break down this question into several sub-topics that can be addressed by the different disciplines.

The main chapters of this review present the formation and evolution of the solar system (3); the building of a habitable planet (4); prebiotic chemistry, biochemistry, and the emergence of life (5); the environmental context of the early Earth (6); and the ancient fossil record and early evolution (7). The concluding chapter (9) provides the highlights of the review and presents the different points of view about the universality of life. Two pedagogical chapters are included; one on chronometers (2), another in the form of a "frieze" (8) which summarizes in graphical form the present state of knowledge about the chronology of the emergence of life on Earth, before the Cambrian explosion.

Jacques Reisse: Professor of organic chemistry and physical chemistry- Université Libre de Bruxelles Member of the Royal Academy of Belgium Research activity: stereochemistry, study of intermolecular interactions in liquid phase, nuclear magnetic resonance, cosmochemistry, sonochemistry Antonio Lazcano, Professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City. President of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life Research activity: origin and early evolution of life He is the author of The Origin of Life, which has become a bestseller with over 600 thousand copies sold. He is considered the foremost promoter of evolutionary biology and the study of the origins of life in Latin America. He has been member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Molecular Evolution, Nanobiology, Revista Latinoamericana de Microbiologia, and Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere.

From the Arrow of Time to the Arrow of Life.- Dating Methods and Corresponding Chronometers in Astrobiology.- Solar System Formation and Early Evolution: the First 100 Million Years.- Building of a Habitable Planet.- Prebiotic Chemistry — Biochemistry — Emergence of Life (4.4-2 Ga).- Environmental Context.- Ancient Fossil Record and Early Evolution (ca. 3.8 to 0.5 Ga).- A Synthetic Interdisciplinary “Chronological Frieze”: an Attempt.- Life On Earth... And Elsewhere?.

Erscheint lt. Verlag	28.12.2006
Zusatzinfo	VIII, 370 p.
Verlagsort	New York, NY
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber
	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie
	Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Astronomie / Astrophysik
ISBN-10	0-387-45082-3 / 0387450823
ISBN-13	978-0-387-45082-7 / 9780387450827
Zustand	Neuware