Exobiology: Matter, Energy, and Information in the Origin and Evolution of Life in the Universe

Leading researchers in the area of the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the universe contributed to Exobiology: Matter, Energy, and Information in the Origin and Evolution of Life in the Universe . This volume provides a review of this interdisciplinary field. In 50 chapters many aspects that contribute to exobiology are reviewed by 90 authors. These include: historical perspective of biological evolution; cultural aspects of exobiology, cosmic, chemical and biological evolution, molecular biology, geochronology, biogeochemistry, biogeology, and planetology. Some of the current missions are discussed. Other subjects in the frontier of exobiology are reviewed, such as the search for planets outside the solar system, and the possible manifestation of intelligence in those new potential environments. The SETI research effort is well represented in this general overview of exobiology. This book is the proceedings of the Fifth Trieste Conference on Chemical Evolution that took place in September 1997. The volume is dedicated to the memory of Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam who suggested the initiation of the Trieste conferences on chemical evolution and the origin of life.
Audience: Graduate students and researchers in the many areas of basic, earth, and life sciences that contribute to the study of chemical evolution and the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the universe.

Contenu
Section 1. General Overview.- Abdus Salam From Fundamental Interactions to the Origin of Life.- The Abdus Salam Lecture: Cosmochemical Evolution: A Unifying and Creative Process in the Universe.- Opening Lecture: The Theory of Common Descent.- The Cyril Ponnamperuma Lecture: The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe.- Public Lecture: Are We Alone in the Universe?.- Section 2. Matter in the Origin and Evolution of Life in the Universe.- The Concept of Matter and Materialism in the Origin and Evolution of Life.- Re-appraisal of the age of the oldest water-lain sediments, West Greenland: Significance for the existence of life on the early Archaean Earth.- The Origin of Mind and Life.- Section 3. Energy from Inert to Living Matter.- Energy for the Origin of Life.- Visually retracing the emergence of the evolvable protocell.- Radicals, Ions and Molecules in Chemical Evolution.- Some aspects of the irradiation of HCN and related compounds and its role in prebiotic chemistry.- The role played by solid state surfaces in prebiotic chemistry.- Mutually catalytic amphiphiles: Simulated chemical evolution and implications to exobiology.- Salam Phase Transition and the Causal Origin of Homochirality.- Physical studies of adsorbed bio-organic substances in Na-Montmorillonite.- On the prevailing direction of our search into the origin of life-Second Thoughts.- Section 4. Information.- Generic Properties of the Sequence-Structure Relations of Biopolymers.- Genetic code: Dinucleotide type, Hydropathic and Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetase Class Organization.- Cognitive universals: Abstract psychology of terrestrial and extraterrestrial intelligence.- Section 5. Early evolution.- Early cellular evolution:Preliminary results from comparative genomic analysis.- Impact of Darwin'stheory on origins of life and extraterrestrial life debates, and some wider topics.- The oldest fossil mineral bacteria from the Early Archean of South Africa and Australia.- The Evolutionary Aspects of Coenzyme Photobiochemistry.- Origin of the Proto-cell Membrane: Great Importance of the Phospholipid Bilaner.- Animate protocells from inanimate thermal proteins: Visualization of the process.- Did the first cells emerge from a microsphere?.- Section 6. Exobiology: General Perspectives.- Exobiology in Earth Orbit.- Production of Organic Compounds in Interstellar Space: Design for Exobiology Experiments on the Earth Orbit.- Section 7. Exobiology on Mars and Europa.- The search for extraterrestrial biochemistry on Mars and Europa.- Possible degree of evolution of solar-system microorganisms.- Is there an alternative path in eukaryogenesis? An astrobiological View on Making the Nucleated Cell.- Did Earthlife come from Mars?.- Ultrastructure in the carbonate globules of Martian meteorite ALH84001.- Production and Detection of Organic Compounds on Mars.- Prebiotic Synthesis by Lightning in Martian Volcanic Plumes.- Earliest microbes on Earth and possible occurrence of stromatolites on Mars.- Section 8. The Interstellar Medium, Comets and Chemical Evolution.- Cometary contributions to planetary atmospheres.- Comets as a source of life's origins.- Formation of molecular hydrogen: The mother of all molecules.- Prebiotic chemistry induced by ion irradiation of ices.- Extraterrestrial delivery of simple biomolecules to the Earth: Survival of amino acids and nucleic acid bases.- Section 9. Exobiology on Titan.- Titan's chemistry: Exobiological aspects and expected contribution from Cassini Huygens.- Production of Organic Gases and Aerosols by Electrical Activity inTitan's Tropospheric Clouds.- Section 10. Extrasolar Planets.- The search for habitable planets and Life in the Universe.- Exochirality in the solar system and beyond.- DRVS and the search for life on extrasolar planets.- Section 11. Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.- A full-sky survey for ultra-narrowband artificial signals.- SETI these last few years: An interdisciplinary overview.- SETI from Space and the Moon Far Side in the Next Century.- Author Index.- List of Participants.