The Emergence of Life: From Chemical Origins to Synthetic Biology

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Cambridge University Press, 13.07.2006
The origin of life from inanimate matter has been the focus of much research for decades, both experimentally and philosophically. Luisi takes the reader through the consecutive stages from prebiotic chemistry to synthetic biology, uniquely combining both approaches. This book presents a systematic course discussing the successive stages of self-organisation, emergence, self-replication, autopoiesis, synthetic compartments and construction of cellular models, in order to demonstrate the spontaneous increase in complexity from inanimate matter to the first cellular life forms. A chapter is dedicated to each of these steps, using a number of synthetic and biological examples. With end-of-chapter review questions to aid reader comprehension, this book will appeal to graduate students and academics researching the origin of life and related areas such as evolutionary biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, biophysics and natural sciences.
 

Inhalt

Abschnitt 1
17
Abschnitt 2
42
Abschnitt 3
59
Abschnitt 4
63
Abschnitt 5
74
Abschnitt 6
85
Abschnitt 7
90
Abschnitt 8
92
Abschnitt 12
129
Abschnitt 13
144
Abschnitt 14
145
Abschnitt 15
151
Abschnitt 16
182
Abschnitt 17
195
Abschnitt 18
200
Abschnitt 19
214

Abschnitt 9
93
Abschnitt 10
103
Abschnitt 11
108
Abschnitt 20
224
Abschnitt 21
243

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Seite 2 - ... the inference, we think, is inevitable ; that the watch must have had a maker ; that there must have existed, at some time and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer ; who comprehended its construction, and designed its use.
Seite 2 - For this reason, and for no other, viz. that, when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive (what we could not discover in the stone) that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose, eg that they are so formed and adjusted as to produce motion, and that motion so regulated as to point out the hour of the day...
Seite 2 - ... several parts are framed and put together for a purpose, eg that they are so formed and adjusted as to produce motion, and that motion so regulated as to point out the hour of the day; that if the...
Seite 2 - ... a different size from what they are, or placed after any other manner, or in any other order, than that in which they are placed, either no motion at all would have been carried on in the machine, or none which would have answered the use that is now served by it.
Seite 12 - As we look out into the universe and identify the many accidents of physics and astronomy that have worked together to our benefit...
Seite 12 - if the rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang had been less by one part in 10'° the universe would have collapsed after a few million years. If it had been greater by one part in 1010 the universe would have been essentially empty after a few million years. In neither case would it have lasted long enough for life to develop.
Seite 12 - If the rate of expansion one second after the big bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million, the universe would have recollapsed before it ever reached its present size.

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