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Oxygen and the Evolution of Life

  • Book
  • © 2011

Overview

Authors:
  1. Heinz Decker

    1. Institut für Molekulare Biophysik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany

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  2. Kensal E. Holde

    1. , Dep. of Biochemistry & Biophysics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA

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  • Written in an easily understandable way, this text makes a very interesting and entertaining read

  • The authors, both biophysicists, depict how changes in the earth's atmosphere have been interrelated with the origin of life and delineate the important implications for human health and humanity's future

  • This book evolved from the authors long-standing interests in proteins and oxygen transport, which lead to the much deeper question as to how oxygen utilization were related to living organisms

  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
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  2. Oxygen, Its Nature and Chemistry: What Is so Special About This Element?

    • Heinz Decker, Kensal E. van Holde
    Pages 1-19

  3. A Brief History of Oxygen

    • Heinz Decker, Kensal E. van Holde
    Pages 21-42

  4. Coping with Oxygen

    • Heinz Decker, Kensal E. van Holde
    Pages 43-59

  5. Aerobic Metabolism: Benefits from an Oxygenated World

    • Heinz Decker, Kensal E. van Holde
    Pages 61-77

  6. Facilitated Oxygen Transport

    • Heinz Decker, Kensal E. van Holde
    Pages 79-105

  7. Climate Over the Ages; Is the Environment Stable?

    • Heinz Decker, Kensal E. van Holde
    Pages 107-126

  8. Global Warming: Human Intervention in World Climate

    • Heinz Decker, Kensal E. van Holde
    Pages 127-141

  9. Oxygen in Medicine

    • Heinz Decker, Kensal E. van Holde
    Pages 143-155

  10. Oxygen and the Exploration of the Universe

    • Heinz Decker, Kensal E. van Holde
    Pages 157-168

  11. Back Matter

    Pages 169-172
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Keywords

About this book

This book describes the interlaced histories of life and oxygen. It opens with the generation of oxygen in ancient stars and its distribution to newly formed planets like the Earth. Free O2 was not available on the early Earth, so the first life forms had to be anaerobic. Life introduced free O2 into the environment through the evolution of photosynthesis, which must have been a disaster for many anaerobes. Others found ways to deal with the toxic reactive oxygen species and even developed a much more efficient oxygen-based metabolism. The authors vividly describe how the introduction of O2 allowed the burst of evolution that created today’s biota. They also discuss the interplay of O2 and CO2, with consequences such as worldwide glaciations and global warming. On the physiological level, they present an overview of oxidative metabolism and O2 transport, and the importance of O2 in human life and medicine, emphasizing that while oxygen is essential, it is also related to aging and many disease states.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Institut für Molekulare Biophysik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany

    Heinz Decker

  • , Dep. of Biochemistry & Biophysics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA

    Kensal E. Holde

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Oxygen and the Evolution of Life

  • Authors: Heinz Decker, Kensal E. Holde

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13179-0

  • Publisher: Springer Berlin, Heidelberg

  • eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life Sciences, Biomedical and Life Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-642-13178-3Published: 04 December 2010

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-642-42384-0Published: 23 November 2014

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-642-13179-0Published: 03 December 2010

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 172

  • Topics: Evolutionary Biology

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