Informationen zum Autor

Addy Pross received a Ph.D in Organic Chemistry from Sydney University in 1970. He is currently a Professor of Chemistry at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and a recognized authority in the area of chemical reactivity to which he contributed with the highly cited and acclaimed Pross-Shaik model of chemical reactivity. He has held visiting positions in many universities word-wide, including the University of Lund, Stanford University, Rutgers University, University of California at Irvine, University of Padova, the Australian National University Canberra, and Sydney University. He has served on the editorial board of chemical and biological journals and a variety of academic management boards. In recent years he has directed his attention to the biological arena where he has applied his expertise in chemical reactivity to the Origin of Life problem and the broader question of the problematic chemistry-biology interface.

Klappentext

Seventy years ago, Erwin Schrodinger posed a profound question: 'What is life, and how did it emerge from non-life?' Scientists have puzzled over it ever since. Addy Pross uses insights from the new field of systems chemistry to show how chemistry can become biology, and that Darwinian evolution is the expression of a deeper physical principle.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Prologue; 1 Living things are so very strange; 2 Historic quest for a theory of life; 3 Understanding 'understanding'; 4 Stability and instability; 5 The knotty origin of life problem; 6 Biology's crisis of identity; 7 Biology is chemistry; 8 What is Life?; References and Notes; Index

In this inspiring book, Pross provides an engaging account of the view that systems chemistry can bridge the hitherto unassailable abiogenic/biogenic divide. In a carefully constructed, almost forensic, analysis, he confronts crucial issues, such as the conceptual gulf between the biochemist's chicken and egg problem...and the fundamental role of dynamic kinetic stability in the process of life.

Autorentext
Addy Pross received a Ph.D in Organic Chemistry from Sydney University in 1970. He is currently a Professor of Chemistry at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and a recognized authority in the area of chemical reactivity to which he contributed with the highly cited and acclaimed Pross-Shaik model of chemical reactivity. He has held visiting positions in many universities word-wide, including the University of Lund, Stanford University, Rutgers University, University of California at Irvine, University of Padova, the Australian National University Canberra, and Sydney University. He has served on the editorial board of chemical and biological journals and a variety of academic management boards. In recent years he has directed his attention to the biological arena where he has applied his expertise in chemical reactivity to the Origin of Life problem and the broader question of the problematic chemistry-biology interface.

Klappentext

Seventy years ago, Erwin Schrodinger posed a profound question: 'What is life, and how did it emerge from non-life?' Scientists have puzzled over it ever since. Addy Pross uses insights from the new field of systems chemistry to show how chemistry can become biology, and that Darwinian evolution is the expression of a deeper physical principle.

Zusammenfassung
Seventy years ago, Erwin Schrödinger posed a profound question: 'What is life, and how did it emerge from non-life?' Scientists have puzzled over it ever since. Addy Pross uses insights from the new field of systems chemistry to show how chemistry can become biology, and that Darwinian evolution is the expression of a deeper physical principle.

Inhalt

• Prologue

• 1: Living things are so very strange

• 2: Historic quest for a theory of life

• 3: Understanding 'understanding'

• 4: Stability and instability

• 5: The knotty origin of life problem

• 6: Biology's crisis of identity

• 7: Biology is chemistry

• 8: What is Life?

• References and Notes

• Index