Chemical Evolution: Physics of the Origin and Evolution of Life: Proceedings of the Fourth Trieste Conference on Chemical Evolution, Trieste, Italy, 4

ISBN-13: 9789401072663 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 414 str.

Julian Chela-Flores; Fran Ois Raulin; Francois Raulin

Opis

Leading researchers in the area of the origin and evolution of life in the universe contributed to Chemical Evolution: Physics of the Origin and Evolution of Life. This volume provides a review of this interdisciplinary field. In 35 chapters many aspects of the origin of life are discussed by 90 authors, with particular emphasis on the early paleontological record: physical, chemical, biological, and informational aspects of life's origin, instrumentation in exobiology and system exploration; the search for habitable planets and extraterrestrial intelligent radio signals.
This book contains the proceedings of the Fourth Trieste Conference on Chemical Evolution that took place in September 1995, in which scientists from a wide geographical distribution joined in a Memorial to Cyril Ponnamperuma, who was a pioneer in the field of chemical evolution, the origin of life, and exobiology, and also initiated the Trieste Conferences on Chemical Evolution and the Origin of Life. This fourth Conference was therefore dedicated to his memory.
Audience: Graduate students and researchers in the many areas of basic, earth, and life sciences that contribute to the study of chemical evolution and the origin of life.

Spis treści

Preface. Section 1: General Overview. Cosmic Evolution, Life and Man; J. Oro. Experimental Retracement of Terrestrial Origin of an Excitable Cell: Was it Predictable? S.W. Fox, et al. Section 2: Origins. Cosmology: The Universe in Evolution; G. Coyne, S.J. From Cosmic Formation of Chiral Bioorganics in Interstellar Dust to Comet Seeds of Life's Origins: Are 1025 Chances Enough? J.M. Greenberg, A. Li. Strategies for the Search of Life in the Universe; J. Schneider. Section 3: From Geophysics to Prebiotic Chemistry. Age of the Isua Supracrustal Sequence of West Greenland: A Possible Repository for Early Life; S. Moorbath, M.J. Whitehouse. Clays as Prebiotic Catalyzers; A. Negron-Mendoza, et al. Role of Transient and Stable Molecules in Chemical Evolution; M. Chadha. Lightning Associated to Archean Volcanic Ash-Gas Clouds; R. Navarro-Gonzalez, et al. Section 4: Physicochemical Aspects. Evolutionary, Kinetic and Thermodynamic Aspects on the Bioenergetics of Inorganic Pyrophosphate (PPi) and Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP); H. Baltscheffsky, M. Baltscheffsky. Mineral Metal Sulphur Clusters as a Testbed for Studies of Evolutionary Continuity; M.S. Kritsky, et al. Thermal Peptides as the Initial Genetic System; A. Pappelis, S.W. Fox. The Origin of Nucleic Acids; B. Prieur. The Origin of Fatty Acids; B. Prieur. Section 5: Biophysical Aspects: General Problems. Oxygen and the Rapid Evolution of Life on Mars; C.P. McKay. First Steps in Eukaryogenesis: Physical Phenomena in the Origin and Evolution of Chromosome Structure; J. Chela-Flores. Biological Aspects of the Origin of Life: Open Questions in Eukaryogenesis; J. Seckbach. Some Putative Living Fossils of the RNAWorld Might be of Recent Appearance; M. Rizzotti. The Ideas of Cyril Ponnamperuma and Thermodynamics of Biological Evolution; G.P. Gladyshev.. Boltzmann Dynamics on the Primitive Earth About 3.9 Billion Years Ago; K. Matsuno. Kinetics and Thermodynamics of Open Systems; L.N. Moiseeva. Section 6: Biophysical Aspects: Biomolecular Chirality. Determining the Physical Origin of Homochirality in Life; D. Cline. Possible Role of Phosphoryl Group Excitation in Chemical Evolution; J. Wu, et al. Amino Acid Chirality Breaking by N-Phosphorylation; Y.-F. Zhao, P.-S. Cao. Ab Initio Calculation of Molecular Energies Including Parity Violating Interactions; A. Bakasov, et al. Section 7: Evolutionary Aspects. Chemical Evolution and the Darwinian Revolution; F.R. Eirich. La Grande Galerie de l'Evolution: The Only Museum in the World Entirely Devoted to Biological Evolution; F. Raulin- Cerceau. Section 8: Information Theory. New Approaches in Mathematical Biology: Information Theory and Molecular Machines; T.D. Schneider. Information- Processing Genes: Molecular Biology in the Computational Paradigm; K.T. Shah. Section 9: Communication. Progress in Searches for Extraterrestrial Intelligent Radio Signals; F. Drake. SETI from the Moon. A Case for a XXIst Century SETI-Dedicated Lunar Farside Crater; J. Heidmann. Section 10: Instrumentation in Exobiology and Mars Exploration. In situ Exploration of Titan and Cometary Nucleus: Implication for Planetary Exobiology; F. Raulin, et al. Looking for the Homochiral Signature of Life: The SETH Cigar; A. MacDermott, et al. Strategy for the Detection of Bioorganic Compounds on Mars; K. Koba