Proceedings of the Fourth Conference on Origins of Life

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

   PDF

2. Introduction of Participants

   • Lynn Margulis

   Pages 1-4

3. Identification of Prebiotic Compounds and the Contamination Problem

   • Lynn Margulis

   Pages 4-70

4. Identification of Organic Matter in Natural Samples

   • Lynn Margulis

   Pages 70-77

5. Energy Sources and the Probability that Life Could have Originated

   • Lynn Margulis

   Pages 78-123

6. The Legitimacy of Paleobiochemistry

   • Lynn Margulis

   Pages 124-169

7. New Concepts of the Geochemical Cycle

   • Lynn Margulis

   Pages 170-195

8. Temperature History of the Earth

   • Lynn Margulis

   Pages 196-215

9. Form of Phosphate on the Early Earth

   • Lynn Margulis

   Pages 215-218

10. Organic Molecules in Interstellar Space

    • Lynn Margulis

    Pages 219-264

11. Back Matter

    Pages 265-291

    PDF

This is an edited record of the dialogue of eminent scientists attending the fourth conference in the series of the origins of life, supported by a grant from the Biosciences Program of the National Aeronautics and Space Admini­ stration. The first conference at Princeton, 1967, was held under the direc­ tion of Dr. Frank Fremont-Smith at the time when the Interdisciplinary Co m­ munications Program (lCP) was associated with the New York Academy of Sciences. In 1968, ICP was integrated into the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Science of the Smithsonian Institution, and the entire operation was set up in Washington, D. C. The second conference, also in Princeton, was held in 1968 and the third was in Santa Ynez, California in 1970. (See Margulis, ed. 1970, 1971 and 1972 for previously published proceedings.) The fourth conference was held at the Belmont Conference Center in Elkridge, Maryland, April 13-16, 1971. The proceedings are recorded and edited by the Interdisciplinary Com­ munications Associates, Inc. (lCA, a nonprofit foundation), for ICP. Dr. Lynn Margulis, who served as Scientific Editor for the entire series, has succeeded admirably in carrying out a difficult and usually inadequately appreciated task. She was ably assisted in her offices by Barbara Miranda and Harriet Eklund, the ICP Staff Editor for this series. I am grateful to all.

• Chemistry
• ETA
• IRA
• Miranda
• New York
• boundary element method
• carr
• dialogue
• energy
• foundation
• interstellar space
• molecule
• opera
• space
• time

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