The Origins of Life and the Universe

by Lurquin, Paul F.

• ISBN13: 9780231126540
• ISBN10: 0231126549
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-05-01
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

The Origins of Life and the Universeis 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 the origins of life on Earth help us understand the origins of the universe, and vice versa? These are questions that have occupied us all. This is a book, then, about the beginning of things -- of the universe, matter, stars, and planetary systems, and finally, of life itself -- topics of profound interest that are rarely considered together. After surveying prescientific accounts of the origins of life, the book examines the concepts of modern physics and cosmology, in particular the two pillars of modern physics, relativity and quantum theory, and how they can be applied to the Big Bang model of the creation of the universe. The author then considers molecular genetics and DNA, the famed building block of life. In addition to assessing various hypotheses concerning the appearance of the first bacterial cells and their evolution into more complex eukaryotic cells, this section explains how "protocells" may have started a kind of integrated metabolism and how horizontal gene transfer may have speeded up evolution. Finally, the book discusses the possibility that life did not originate on planet Earth but first appeared on other solar planets, or perhaps in other star systems. How would such a possibility affect our understanding of the meaning of life, or of its ultimate fate in the universe? The book ends as it begins, with profound questions and penetrating answers, a state-of-the-art guide to unlocking the scientific mysteries of life and matter.

Table of Contents

Preface	íx
Introduction	1	(1)
The Meaning of Science	2	(4)
What Is Life?	6	(2)
Some Origins Models Before Science	8	(179)
CHAPTER 1 Foundations of the Universe	13	(29)
What Is in the Universe?	14	(2)
Physics Holds One of the Clues to the Origins: Relativity	16	(10)
The Next Clue: Quantum Physics	26	(11)
Forces of Nature and Elementary Particles	37	(4)
Conclusions	41	(1)
CHAPTER 2 Building a Universe	42	(20)
Cosmology: The Big Bang Model	42	(9)
The Genesis of Stars and Planets	51	(9)
Conclusions	60	(2)
CHAPTER 3 Life as it Is Today	62	(30)
The Universal Blueprint	63	(9)
Variations in the Blueprint	72	(6)
Metabolism and Energy Transactions	78	(7)
Life That Depends on Simple Molecules Only	85	(2)
The Cell's Envelope and Its Skeleton	87	(2)
Conclusions	89	(3)
CHAPTER 4 Prebiotic Earth: First Organic Compounds and First Informational Molecules	92	(25)
Organic Compounds from Earth's Putative Primitive Atmosphere	94	(5)
Space Chemistry and the Origins of Life	99	(3)
Ocean Floor Chemistry	102	(2)
Proteins and Metabolism First: The Iron-Sulfur World	104	(8)
Genetic Information First: The RNA World	112	(4)
Conclusions	116	(1)
CHAPTER 5 Life on Its Way	117	(37)
Lessons from Bacteriophages	118	(2)
Quasispecies and Hypercycles	120	(5)
Origin of the Genetic Code: From the RNA World to Proteins	125	(6)
Protocells and the Emergence of the DNA World	131	(3)
First DNA-Containing Cells and Their Evolution	134	(5)
Paths of Fast Evolution	139	(2)
First Eukaryotes	141	(11)
Conclusions	152	(2)
CHAPTER 6 Has Life Originated Elsewhere and Will It End?	154	(21)
Panspermia	155	(3)
Life Elsewhere in the Solar System?	158	(8)
Discontent with Origins Models	166	(4)
The End of the Universe, the End of Life	170	(1)
Conclusions	171	(4)
APPENDIX 1 A Graphic Representation of Special Relativity	175	(2)
APPENDIX 2 More on Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle	177	(2)
APPENDIX 3 How Do We Know the Age of the Universe?	179	(2)
APPENDIX 4 Eric Chaisson's View of Cosmic Evolution	181	(2)
APPENDIX 5 Do the Universe and Life Have a Purpose and a Designer?	183	(4)
Notes	187	(8)
Glossary	195	(4)
Notable Scientists	199	(2)
Bibliography	201	(4)
Index	205