The emergence of life : from chemical origins to synthetic biology
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Bibliographic Information
The emergence of life : from chemical origins to synthetic biology
Cambridge University Press, 2016
2nd ed
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 419-456) and indexs
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Addressing the emergence of life from a systems biology perspective, this new edition has undergone extensive revision, reflecting changes in scientific understanding and evolution of thought on the question 'what is life?'. With an emphasis on the philosophical aspects of science, including the epistemic features of modern synthetic biology, and also providing an updated view of the autopoiesis/cognition theory, the book gives an exhaustive treatment of the biophysical properties of vesicles, seen as the beginning of the 'road map' to the minimal cell - a road map which will develop into the question of whether and to what extent synthetic biology will be capable of making minimal life in the laboratory. Fully illustrated, accessibly written, directly challenging the reader with provocative questions, offering suggestions for research proposals, and including dialogues with contemporary authors such as Humberto Maturana, Albert Eschenmoser and Harold Morowitz, this is an ideal resource for researchers and students across fields including bioengineering, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, chemistry and chemical engineering.
Table of Contents
- Part I. Approaches to the Origin of Life: 1. Setting the stage
- 2. The hardware
- 3. Ascending the ramp of complexity
- 4. Experimental approaches to the origins of life
- 5. Origin of life from ground zero
- Part II. What Is Life? The Bio-Logics of Cellular Life: 6. Autopoiesis - the invariant property
- 7. Cognition
- Part III. Order and Organization in Biological Systems: 8. Self-organization
- 9. The notion of emergence
- 10. Self-replication and self-reproduction
- Part IV. The World of Vesicles: 11. The various types of surfactant aggregates
- 12. Vesicle reactivity and transformations
- 13. Biochemistry and molecular biology in vesicles
- Part V. Towards the Synthetic Biology of Minimal Cells: 14. A panoramic view of synthetic biology
- 15. The minimal cell.
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