Life in the Universe: From the Miller Experiment to the Search for Life on Other Worlds
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The year 2003 was the 50th anniversary of the seminal experiment of Stanley Miller. This was a unique opportunity for highlighting the current interest in this most interdisciplinary subject. The leading space agencies: the European Space Agency (ESA) as well as NASA, the American Space Agency, have planned missions that will elucidate some of the still unknown questions underlying research in the origin of life. New results are surpassing our ability to keep well informed: the reviews that we were presented at the Trieste meeting will bring the readers of this well-documented and timely book up to date in this fast-moving area. An important component of the conference was the review of the Cassini-Huygens mission due to arrive in the Saturn system just one year after the conference convened in Trieste. There was particular interest in the status of the experiments that will take place inside the atmosphere of Titan, the large satellite, which is a testing ground for the theories and experiments in the field of chemical evolution.The Jovian system is currently under study with the view of investigating the possibility of life underneath the frozen surface of the Galilean moon Europa; the ESA mission "Mars Express" and Mars Odyssey received special attention. Some of the world leaders in the field gathered in Trieste in September 2003 - that was a most timely date for reviewing recent data and discussing the prospects of future research.
Introduction to life in the universe3The Abdus Salam lecture7The beginning of chemical evolution experiments9An overview of cosmic evolution17Physical phenomena underlying the origin of life27The origin of biogenic elements55Thermochemistry of the dark age59Searching for oldest life on Earth : a progress report63The European exo/astrobiology network association67The origin of biomolecular chirality73Salam hypothesis and the role of phase transition in amino acids79A mechanism for the prebiotic emergence of proteins83Functional, self-referential genetic coding89Importance of biased synthesis in chemical evolution studies93When did information first appear in the universe97Prebiotic organic synthesis and the emergence of life103Origin and evolution of very early sequence motifs in enzymes107The lipid world : from catalytic and informational headgroups to Micelle replication and evolution without nucleic acids111Coenzymes in evolution of the Rna world115The role of heat in the origin of life119A possible pathway for the transfer of chiral bias from extraterrestrial C[superscript [alpha]]-tetrasubstituted [alpha]-amino acids to proteinogenic amino acids121Prebiotic polymerization of amino acids : a Makov chain approach123The electrochemical reduction of Co[subscript 2] to formate in hydrothermal sulfide ore deposit as a novel source of organic matter125Towards a chronological order of the amino acids127Origin and evolution of metabolic pathways129Conserved oligopeptides in the Rubisco large chains133On the question of convergent evolution in biochemistry135Diversity of microbial life on earth and beyond139Mineral surfaces as a cradle of primordial genetic material145Adsorption and self-organization of small molecules on inorganic surfaces149Studies on copper chromicyanide as prebiotic catalyst153Phosphate immobilization by primitive condensers157Adsorption and catalysis of nucleotide hydrolysis by pyrite in media simulating primeval aqueous environments161Dust and planet formation in the early universe167Quasar absorption-line systems and astrobiology169A new search for Dyson spheres in the Milky Way173Space weather and space climate177Spontaneous generation of amino acid structures in the interstellar medium183Experimental study of the degradation of complex organic molecules : application to the origin of extended sources in cometary atmospheres187Fate of glycine during collapse of interstellar clouds and star formation191Formation of simplest bio-molecules during collapse of an interstellar cloud195Chemical abundances of cometary meteoroids from meteor spectroscopy201Viable halobacteria from ancient Ocea207Mars-like soils in the Yungay area, the driest core of the Atacama Desert in Northern ChileThe discovery of organics in sub-basement fossil soils drilled in the north Pacific (Odp Leg 197) : their model formation and implications for astrobiology research217Silica-carbonate biomorphs and the implications for identification of microfossils221Some statistical aspects related to the study of treeline in Pico De Orizaba223The Beagle 2 lander and the search for traces of life on Mars227Minimal unit of terraforming an alternative for remodelling mars233Early Archaean life239Extraterrestrial impacts on Earth and extinction of life in the Himalaya245Palaeobiology and biosedimentology of the stromatolitic buxa dolomite, Ranjit Window, Sikkim, Ne Lesser Himalaya, India249Searching for extraterrestrial life253Search for bacterial waste as a possible signature of life on Europa257Sulfate volumes and the fitness of Supert92 for calculating deep ocean chemistry261The case for life existing outside of our biosphere265Application of molecular biology techniques to astrobiology269Titan275Chemical characterization of aerosols in simulated planetary atmospheres281Observation, modeling and experimental simulation : understanding Titan's atmospheric chemistry using these three tools287Exobiology of Titan293Seti-ItaliaSeti on the moon303Proposing a United Nations Secretary General Seti International Advisory Board307Some engineering considerations on the controversial issue of humanoids311The new universe, destiny of life, and the cultural implications319Evolution of intelligent behavior327Evolution of language as innate mental faculty333How advanced is Et?335Chance or design in the origin of living beings341Astrobiology and biocentrism345Analysis of the works of the German Naturalist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) on the origin of life349A reexamination of Alfonso Herrera's sulfocyanic theory on the origin of life353Determinism and the proteinoid theory357Glimpses of trieste conferences on chemical evolution and origin of life361
