Habitability of the Universe before Earth: Astrobiology: Exploring Life on Earth and Beyond (series) examines the times and places-before life existed on Earth-that might have provided suitable environments for life to occur, addressing the question: Is life on Earth de novo, or derived from previous life? The universe changed considerably during the vast epoch between the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago and the first evidence of life on Earth 4.3 billion years ago, providing significant time and space to contemplate where, when and under what circumstances life might have arisen. No other book covers this cosmic time period from the point of view of its potential for life.

The series covers a broad range of topics encompassing laboratory and field research into the origins and evolution of life on Earth, life in extreme environments and the search for habitable environments in our solar system and beyond, including exoplanets, exomoons and astronomical biosignatures.

Autorentext
Richard Gordon is a Theoretical Biologist at the Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory (Panacea, FL), as well as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Wayne State University (Detroit, MI). Dr. Gordon was Professor at the University of Manitoba until his retirement in 2011. He holds an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and a PhD in Chemical Physics from the University of Oregon under Terrell Hill. He has edited 16 academic books and special issues plus two monographs. He was summoned twice to the Canadian Parliament to testify as an expert scientific witness on the grant system. Dr. Gordon has published over 200 peer reviewed articles in mathematics, engineering, physics and chemistry. He wrote the first paper on diatom nanotechnology, founding that field. He started the field of adaptive image processing and published on algal biofuels, computed tomography, AIDS prevention, neural tube defects, embryo physics, and research and social ethics. His interest in astrobiology dates back to work on the Orgueil meteorite as an undergraduate in Edward Anders' lab at the University of Chicago. The full list of publications by Richard Gordon is available at http://tinyurl.com/DickGordon. He may be reached at DickGordonCan@gmail.com.

Dr. Richard Gordon
Retired from the University of Manitoba
Theoretical Biologist. Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory & Aquarium
Adjunct Professor, C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth & Development
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Wayne State University Alexei Sharov started his career as an entomologist and ecologist, but soon realized that he had to answer more fundamental questions: what is life, how it evolves, learns, and functions. Thus he got involved in the Research Group on Theoretical Biology at Moscow State University, and started publishing theoretical papers. Later he organized a seminar and two conferences on Biosemiotics, which is a synthesis of biology and semiotics, a theory on signs and meanings. Since 2002, he has worked in molecular biology and bioinformatics, and this new field helped him to advance further in the area of theoretical biology and biosemiotics. He has published over 200 papers and edited a special issue.

Inhalt
Preface: Life as a Cosmic Phenomenon

Part I: Physical and Chemical Constraints

1. Gravity and life
2. Radiation as a constraint for life in the universe
3. The when and where of water in the history of the universe
4. The cosmic evolution of biochemistry
5. Astrophysical and cosmological constraints on life
6. Primitive carbon: Before Earth and much before any life on it

Part II: Predicting Habitability
7. The habitability of our evolving galaxy
8. N-body simulations and galactic habitability
9. Occupied and empty regions of the space of extremophile parameters
10. The emergence of structured, living and conscious matter in the evolution of the universe: A theory of structural evolution and interaction of matter

Part III: Life in the Cosmic Scale
11. Life before Earth
12. Earth before life
13. The time-dependent Drake equation
14. Are we the first? 10 billion years of evolution before Earth
15. Life before its origin on Earth: Implications of a late emergence of terrestrial life

Part IV: System Properties of Life
16. Symbiosis: Why was the transition from microbial prokaryotes to eukaryotic organisms a cosmic gigayear event?
17. Coenzyme world model of the origin of life
18. Emergence of polygonal shapes in oil droplets and living cells: The potential role of tensegrity in the origin of life
19. Why on theoretical grounds it may be likely that 'life' exists throughout the universe