Prebiotic Chemistry

About this book

The renowned Oxford Chemistry Primers series, which provides focused introductions to a range of important topics in chemistry, has been refreshed and updated to suit the needs of today's students, lecturers, and postgraduate researchers. The rigorous, yet accessible, treatment of each subject area is ideal for those wanting a primer in a given topic to prepare them for more advanced study or research. Moreover, cutting-edge examples and applications throughout the texts show the relevance of the chemistry being described to current research and industry.

The learning features provided, including questions at the end of every chapter and online multiple-choice questions, encourage active learning and promote understanding. Furthermore, frequent diagrams, margin notes, further reading, and glossary definitions all help to enhance a student's understanding of these essential areas of chemistry.

Prebiotic Chemistry is the only text to provide an accessible and engaging introduction to prebiotic chemistry with a chemical focus. Using a range of examples to convey basic concepts in prebiotic chemistry, key geochemical and planetary concepts, and chemical phenomena that have been classified in the last 150 years, expert authors help to bring this cutting-edge topic to life.

Contents

1. Introductions to Basic Origins of Life Questions
2. Early Atmosphere and Ocean Chemistry: Earth's First Molecules
3. An Overview of Biochemistry
4. An Overview of Metabolism and Reaction Networks
5. Sugars, Nucleobases and RNA: Prebiotic Ribonucleotide Synthesis
6. Aqueous Phase Amino Acid Chemistry
7. Nonenzymatic Polymerization of Nucleic Acids and Peptides
8. Protocells: Compartmentalization, Replication and Integrated Molecular Function

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Biography

Albert C. Fahrenbach received his BS in Chemistry from Indiana University in 2008, having done research under the tutelage of Professor Amar Flood in synthetic and supramolecular chemistry. He received his PhD from Northwestern University in Organic Chemistry in 2013 under the mentorship of Professor Sir Fraser Stoddart (Nobel Prize 2016) investigating the molecular self-assembly and template-directed syntheses of artificial molecular switches and machines. Albert then moved to Boston to carry out research in origins of life chemistry as a postdoctoral scholar with Professor Jack Szostak (Nobel Prize 2009) at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital. His research here focused on nonenzymatic RNA replication and prebiotic synthesis.

Henderson ("Jim") Cleaves is the current president of the International Society for the Study of the Origins of Life. He received his PhD in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of California San Diego under the tutelage of pioneering prebiotic chemist Professor Stanley L. Miller. He is a research scientist at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, a visiting scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Earth and Planets Laboratory, and an adjunct professor at the Earth-Life Science Institute at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. His current research involves understanding the evolution of complex combinatorial organic reaction networks to help understand the origins of life and the detection of biosignatures for Solar System exploration missions.