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The origins of life and the universe /
The Origins of Life and the Universe is the culmination of a university science professor's search for understanding and is based on his experiences teaching the fundamental issues of physics, chemistry, and biology in the classroom. What is life? Where did it come from? How can understanding t...
| Clasificación: | Libro Electrónico |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Electrónico eBook |
| Idioma: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
New York :
Columbia University Press,
©2003.
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| Temas: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Texto completo |
Tabla de Contenidos:
- Preface; Introduction; The Meaning of Science; What Is Life?; Some Origins Models Before Science; 1 Foundations of the Universe; What Is in the Universe?; Physics Holds One of the Clues to the Origins: Relativity; The Next Clue: Quantum Physics; Forces of Nature and Elementary Particles; Conclusions; 2 Building a Universe; Cosmology: The Big Bang Model; The Genesis of Stars and Planets; Conclusions; 3 Life as It Is Today; The Universal Blueprint; Variations in the Blueprint; Metabolism and Energy Transactions; Life That Depends on Simple Molecules Only.
- The Cell's Envelope and Its SkeletonConclusions; 4 Prebiotic Earth: First Organic Compounds and First Informational Molecules; Organic Compounds from Earth's Putative Primitive Atmosphere; Space Chemistry and the Origins of Life; Ocean Floor Chemistry; Proteins and Metabolism First: The Iron-Sulfur World; Genetic Information First: The RNA World; Conclusions; 5 Life on Its Way; Lessons from Bacteriophages; Quasispecies and Hypercycles; Origin of the Genetic Code: From the RNA World to Proteins; Protocells and the Emergence of the DNA World; First DNA-Containing Cells and Their Evolution.
- Paths of Fast EvolutionFirst Eukaryotes; Conclusions; 6 Has Life Originated Elsewhere and Will It End?; Panspermia; Life Elsewhere in the Solar System?; Discontent with Origins Models; The End of the Universe, the End of Life; Conclusions; Appendix 1: A Graphic Representation of Special Relativity; Appendix 2: More on Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle; Appendix 3: How Do We Know the Age of the Universe?; Appendix 4: Eric Chaisson's View of Cosmic Evolution; Appendix 5: Do the Universe and Life Have a Purpose and a Designer?; Notes; Glossary; Notable Scientists; Bibliography; Index.