Genesis - In The Beginning: Precursors of Life, Chemical Models and Early Biological Evolution

Front Matter....Pages i-xxxix
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
The Prebiotic Chemistry of Alternative Nucleic Acids....Pages 3-33
Cooptive Evolution of Prebiotic Chemical Networks....Pages 35-53
Origin and Evolution of Self-Replicating Polymers on Mineral Habitats....Pages 55-66
Mathematical Models of Prebiotic Replication of Informational Molecules....Pages 67-88
Life Without Carbon....Pages 89-106
[GADV]-Protein World Hypothesis on the Origin of Life....Pages 107-121
Reality of the Emergence of Life-Like Systems from Simple Prebiotic Polymers on Primitive Earth....Pages 123-144
The Photobiological Regime in the Very Early Earth and the Emergence of Life....Pages 145-155
Prebiotic Formation of Peptides: A Markov Chain Approach....Pages 157-169
Atomic Structural Templates of the Earliest Life on Earth: Vibration and Lightning Experiments with Quartz and Amino Acids....Pages 171-177
The Chemical Evolution in Open Space: A Link to the Origin of Life....Pages 179-200
The Prebiotic Chemistry of Nitrogen and the Origin of Life....Pages 201-216
Front Matter....Pages 217-217
Moving “Far from Equilibrium” in a Prebiotic Environment: The Role of Maxwell’s Demon in Life Origin....Pages 219-236
Life from Interface....Pages 237-252
Breaking the Paradigm: The Pattern of Life....Pages 253-266
Cyberbiogenesis and the EvoGrid: A Twenty-First Century Grand Challenge....Pages 267-288
Constructive Approaches for the Origin of Life....Pages 289-303
Origin of Life by Thermodynamic Inversion: A Universal Process....Pages 305-320
Life Explained by Heat Engines....Pages 321-344
Computational Simulations of Prebiotic Processes....Pages 345-362
Front Matter....Pages 217-217
Comets, Information, and the Origin of Life....Pages 363-389
In Situ High Spatial Resolution Techniques in the Search for the Origin of Life....Pages 391-411
Front Matter....Pages 413-413
Disorder to Order, Nonlife to Life: In the Beginning There Was a Mistake....Pages 415-435
The Role of Information and Order in the Origin of Life....Pages 437-468
The Origin of First Peptides on Earth: From Amino Acids to Homochiral Biomolecules....Pages 469-489
Chemical Models for the Origin of Biological Homochirality....Pages 491-508
Absolute Asymmetric Synthesis and the Origin of Biological Chirality....Pages 509-523
Energy-Driven Evolution of Prebiotic Chiral Order (Lessons from Dynamic Systems Modeling)....Pages 525-545
Front Matter....Pages 547-547
Recurrent Dreams of Life in Meteorites....Pages 549-590
Are We from Outer Space?....Pages 591-619
Origin of Life and Panspermia....Pages 621-649
Front Matter....Pages 651-651
The Dimeric Proto-Ribosome Within the Modern Ribosome....Pages 653-668
Oceanic Arginine Translator: The Origin of Life and Early Evolution of the Genetic Code....Pages 669-690
Tidal Cycling and the Origin of the Genetic Code: Implications for Cellular Life....Pages 691-707
Heterotrophic Model Protocells....Pages 709-722
A Symbiogenic Way in the Origin of Life....Pages 723-742
Horizontal Gene Transfer and the Tree of Life....Pages 743-755
On the Vesicular Origin of the Cell Cycle....Pages 757-773
Hypothesized Microenvironments for the Origin of Microbial Life on Earth....Pages 775-795
Front Matter....Pages 797-797
What Can Life on Earth Tell Us About Life in the Universe?....Pages 799-815
Front Matter....Pages 797-797
Potential for Life in the Saturn System....Pages 817-833
Energy Sources for, and Detectability of, Life on Extrasolar Planets....Pages 835-857
Habitable Environments by Extremophiles on Earth, the Solar System, and Elsewhere....Pages 859-870
Front Matter....Pages 871-871
Cultural Implications of the Search and Eventual Discovery of a Second Genesis....Pages 873-890
The Concept of Chemical Evolution Before Oparin....Pages 891-906
A History of Origin of Life Ideas from Darwin to NASA....Pages 907-921
Back Matter....Pages 923-934