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Science General

The Origins of Life

edited by David Dreamer & Jack W. Szostak

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Initial publish date
Jul 2010
Category
General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781936113040
    Publish Date
    Jul 2010
    List Price
    $148.50

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Where to buy it

Description

Life arose on Earth more than three billion years ago. How the first self-replicating systems emerged from prebiotic chemistry and evolved into primitive cell-like entities is an area of intense research, spanning molecular and cellular biology, organic chemistry, cosmology, geology, and atmospheric science.

Written and edited by experts in the field, this collection from Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology provides a comprehensive account of the environment of the early Earth and the mechanisms by which the organic molecules present may have self-assembled to form replicating material such as RNA and other polymers. The contributors examine the energetic requirements for this process and focus in particular on the essential role of semi-permeable compartments in containment of primitive genetic systems. Also covered in the book are new synthetic approaches for fabricating cellular systems, the potentially extraterrestrial origin of life's building blocks, and the possibility that life once existed on Mars. Comprising five sections - Setting the Stage, Components of First Life, Primitive Systems, First Polymers, and Transition to a Microbial World - it is a vital reference for all scientists interested in the origin of life on Earth and the likelihood that it has arisen on other planets

About the authors

Contributor Notes

Jack William Szostak (born November 9, 1952) is a Canadian American biologist of Polish British descent, Nobel Prize laureate, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, and Alexander Rich Distinguished Investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. Szostak has made significant contributions to the field of genetics.