From Stardust to First Cells The Origin and Evolution of Early Life

About this book

This book presents a groundbreaking hypothesis to answer one of the greatest scientific mysteries: How did life begin? Like a detective piecing together seemingly disparate bits of evidence, Dr Sankar Chatterjee combines the most recent discoveries in cosmology, geology, chemistry, information systems, and biology, weaving a vast tapestry from the threads of current research. Dr Chatterjee convincingly argues that the odyssey of life first began when the fundamental building blocks were brought to Earth by meteorites. These cosmic compounds concentrated and simmered like a soup in hydrothermal crater-caldrons. Through a system of subterranean vent networks, a biosynthetic-rich variety of organic compounds mixed and matched into a recipe of rich biomolecules guided by prebiotic information systems. Through symbiosis, these complex biopolymers gradually assemble into membrane-bound protocells. At each stage of this evolutionary progression, through natural selection, they refined with increasing stability and complexity, ultimately leading to the emergence of the first cells about four billion years ago. In this book, Dr Chatterjee tells this story in rigorous detail in language that is both accessible and engaging.
 

Contents

1. Prologue
2. Defining life
3. Origin of life: a model of hierarchical complexity
4. Cosmic connections
5. The cradle of life
6. Bioenergetics and primitive metabolism
7. Chemical stage
8. Lipid membrane: encapsulating life
9. The RNA world-reality or dogma?
10. The age of information
11. A code script for life
12. The advent of proteins
13. The virus world in deep time
14. DNA takes over
15. First life
16. Life beyond earth
17. Epilogue

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Biography

Sankar Chatterjee is Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor of Geosciences and Curator of Paleontology at Texas Tech University. He received his PhD from Calcutta University and was a Postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution. He taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and George Washington University before he moved to Texas Tech. His current research focuses on astrobiology and the origin of life. He is an elected fellow of the Geological Society of America and the American Association of the Advancement of Science. He led several expeditions to Antarctica, China, India, and the American Southwest in search of dinosaurs and early birds. His previous book, The Rise of Birds (Johns Hopkins University Press), has been translated into many languages.