First Steps in the Origin of Life in the Universe
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The general topic of this volume concerns the origin, evolution, distribution, and destiny of life in the Universe. Firstly, it discusses the transition from inert matter to cellular life and its evolution to fully developed intelligent beings, and also the possibility of life occurring elsewhere, particularly in other environments in our own and other solar systems. Secondly, the book explores the role that space missions may play in obtaining further insight into the question of the origin of life. Reviews are included of the research for microorganisms in the solar system and the well-established project for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The present work is much broader in its scope than in previous conferences: over one hundred leading scientists have reviewed the entire range of subjects dealt with in these sixty-nine papers. Audience: This book is aimed at advanced students, as well as researchers, in the many areas of basic, earth, and life sciences that contribute to the study of the first steps in the origin of life.
Dedication to Giordano BrunoPrefaceGroup PhotographPeptide Nucleic Acids as a Possible Primordial Genetic Polymer1Physics and Life11Solution to Darwin's Dilemma: Discovery of the Missing Precambrian Record of Life21Europa: Prospects for an Ocean and Life25Sidney Walter Fox: The Father of Thermal Proteins and Protocells Therefrom37Theories on Origins of Life Between 1860 and 1900 the Spontaneous Generation Controversy Years Post Darwin and Pasteur's Works39Reminiscences-Pont-A-Mousson-1970 to Trieste-200043Materials for "First Steps" in Evolution49Origin and Persistence of Genetic Material in Prebiotic Habitats. The Possible Role of Nucleic Acid-Clay Complexes55Chemical Evolution Studies in Organic Compounds Adsorbed in Clays59From Inanimate Macromolecules to the Animate Protocell: In Search of Thermal Protein Phase-Shifting65HPLC Evidence of Nonrandomness in Thermal Proteins69IR Spectra of Protein, Thermal Protein, and Thermal Glycoprotein73Prebiotic Selection Induced by Periodic Starlight77A Model System for Studying the Role of Phosphoryl Group in Energy Transfer System81Demonstration of the Parity Violating Energy Difference in Phase Transition of D- and L-Alanine and Valine87Two Puctuation Systems in the Genetic Code91Studies on Metal Ferrocyanides as Prebiotic Catalyst95Stability of Ribonucleic Acid in Protective Environments of Alkanes [is equal to or greater than][actual symbol not reproducible]-C[subscript 18] - Results from Experiments in Laboratory99Is Boric Acid the Missing Link in Prebiotic Chemistry103A Phosphoramide-Bonded Polynucleobasephosphates as Riboseless Precursors of RNA?107Cometary Molecules and Life's Origin113When and how Quickly did Life Emerge on Earth?121Cosmochemistry in the Early Universe131Absorption Against the Cosmic 2.7 K Background135Can Bio-Molecules be Formed in Collapsing Interstellar Clouds?139Interstellar Molecules: An Exotic Chemistry145Protoplanetary Disks, Solar System Minor Bodies and Origin of Life151Electric Discharge in Carbonaceous Meteorites?157Terrene Meteorites on the Moon: A Source in Information About the Origin of Life in the Earth?161Two Possible Steps of the Chemical Evolution on Surface of Small Bodies in the Solar System167Tetra- and Nonapeptidyl Motifs in the Origin and Evolution of Photosynthetic Bioenergy Conversion173Geochemical Habitats in Hydrothermal Systems179Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents: An Example of Extreme Environment on Earth187Catalytic Capability of Oligopeptides in the Interface Chemistry in Hydrothermal Environments195Volcanic Lightning and the Availability of Reactive Nitrogen and Phosphorus for Chemical Evolution201Planetary Habitable Zones: The Spatial Distribution of Life on Planetary Bodies211Geological and Geochronological Constraints for the Age of the Oldest Putative Biomarkers in the Early Archaean Rocks of West Greenland217The Cenancestor and its Contemporary Biological Relics: The Case of Nucleic Acid Polymerases223Lifelihood of Transport of Life Between the Planets of our Solar System231The Nucleotide and Nucleotide-Like Coenzymes in Primitive Metabolism, Photobiology and Evolution237From Extremophiles to Astrobiology241Adaptative Response of a Fungus Species to Hydrocarbon Environments - Results from Experiments in Laboratory247Origins of Life in the Universe and Earliest Prokaryotic Microorganisms on Earth251Persistence of Living Planktonic Foraminifera (Neoglobuquadrina pachyderma) in Antarctic Sea-Ice Inferred from a Study of a Sediment Core (Ross Sea Continental Margin)255Testing Evolutionary Convergence: From RNA World to Intelligence261The Search for a Second Genesis of Life in our Solar System269Ancient Life on Mars and Earth279Search for Life on Mars: The Mars Express Beagle-2 Lander281Search for Enantiomeric Excess in Extraterrestrial Samples. Interest for Mars Sample Return283Changes on the Surface of Mars Resulting from Inner Factors and Impactors289Spatial and Temporary Patterns of some Climate Parameters Around the Timberline of Pico de Orizaba293The Satellites of Saturn305Titan: Exobiology and the Cassini-Huygens Mission307Experimental and Theoretical Photochemical Studies of Polyynes: Application to Titan's Atmosphere315Experimental Simulation of Titan's Atmosphere by Cold Plasmas319Ways to Detect Life on New Planets327Searching for Water in Exoplanets335The Saha Crater Radioastronomic and Seti Observatory: Set-Up of the Data Link339Natural Intelligence and Cellular Complexity345Extraterrestrial Life and Communication Perspectives349On the Last Terms of Drake Equation: The Problem of Energy Sources353Origins and Creation359Life in the Universe: Philosophical and Theological Issues365Implications of Possible Biological Evolution Outside Habitable Zones in Solar Systems375Cosmopark-A Natural Astronomical Observatory383Spanish Photographic Meteor Network: An Interdisciplinary Crosslink387New Paradigms for Seti393The Plurality of Worlds399Author index409Subject Index413List of participants421
