"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 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.
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