The emergence of life : from chemical origins to synthetic biology

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

The emergence of life : from chemical origins to synthetic biology

Pier Luigi Luisi

Cambridge University Press, 2006

  • : hbk

Available at  / 7 libraries

Search this Book/Journal

Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

The origin of life from inanimate matter has been the focus of much research for decades, both experimentally and philosophically. Luisi takes the reader through the consecutive stages from prebiotic chemistry to synthetic biology, uniquely combining both approaches. This book presents a systematic course discussing the successive stages of self-organisation, emergence, self-replication, autopoiesis, synthetic compartments and construction of cellular models, in order to demonstrate the spontaneous increase in complexity from inanimate matter to the first cellular life forms. A chapter is dedicated to each of these steps, using a number of synthetic and biological examples. With end-of-chapter review questions to aid reader comprehension, this book will appeal to graduate students and academics researching the origin of life and related areas such as evolutionary biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, biophysics and natural sciences.

Table of Contents

  • Preface
  • 1. The conceptual framework of the research on the origin of life on Earth
  • 2. Approaches to the definitions of life
  • 3. Selection in prebiotic chemistry - why this ... and not that?
  • 4. The bottle neck - macromolecular sequences
  • 5. Self-organization
  • 6. Emergence and emergent properties
  • 7. Self-replication and self-reproduction
  • 8. Autopoiesis - the logic of cellular life
  • 9. Compartments
  • 10. Reactivity and transformation of vesicles
  • 11. Approaches to the minimal cell
  • Outlook
  • Bibliography.

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

  • NCID
    BA80570568
  • ISBN
    • 0521821177
  • LCCN
    2006285720
  • Country Code
    uk
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    Cambridge
  • Pages/Volumes
    xv, 315 p.
  • Size
    26 cm
  • Classification
  • Subject Headings
Page Top