Aspects of the Origin of Life

International Series of Monographs on Pure and Applied Biology

M. Florkin

• Publisher: Pergamon
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9780080135328
• eBook ISBN:
  9781483135878
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Modern Trends in Physiological Sciences, Volume 6: Aspects of the Origin of Life presents the possible ways of the chemical evolution of the Earth's surface before the origination of life. This book examines the evolutionary aspects of the biochemistry of cells and organisms. Organized into 20 chapters, this volume begins with an overview of the conditions that characterized the physical state of the Earth during the earliest periods following its formation and development. This text then examines the content of elementary oxygen as the most remarkable aspect of the Earth's atmosphere. Other chapters consider the fundamental propositions concerning the biosphere, which is regarded as important to the geochemical processes of the Earth. This book discusses as well the history of the whole substance of Earth, which determines how far abiogenic synthesis could proceed and what was the state of the Earth when life came into being. Biochemists and scientists will find this book useful.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Aspects of the Origin of Life
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. Some Considerations on the Primaeval State of the Earth
• Chapter 2. Primitive Planetary Atmospheres and the Origin of Life
• Chapter 3. The Origin of the Biosphere
• Chapter 4. The Problem of Stages in Biopoesis
• Chapter 5. The Formation of the Earth from Cold Material and the Problem of the Formation of the Simplest Organic Substances
• Chapter 6. Chemical Diversity and the Origins of Life
• Chapter 7. The Geological Conditions for the Appearance of Life on the Earth, and the Problems of Petroleum Genesis
• Chapter 8. The Role of Dissymmetry in the Origin of Living Material
• Chapter 9. Formation of Organic Compounds on the Primitive Earth
• Chapter 10. The Original Formation of Amino Acids under the Action of Ultraviolet Rays and Electric Discharges
• Chapter 11. Absolute Asymmetrie Synthesis and Asymmetrie Catalysis
• Chapter 12. On the Origin of the Fore-protein
• Chapter 13. Evolution of Enzymes and the Photosynthetic Apparatus
• Chapter 14. The Nature of the Forces Operating in the Process of the Duplication of Molecules in Living Organisms
• Chapter 15. The Occurrence of Amino Acids in Nature
• Chapter 16. A Chemical Theory of Spontaneous Generation*
• Chapter 17. The Scale of Structural Units in Biopoesis
• Chapter 18. Biochemical Processes in the Simplest Structures
• Chapter 19. Protein Complexes as Biochemically Active Systems
• Chapter 20. The Relation between Primitive and Present-day Photobiological Processes
• Subject Index