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Prebiotic Chemistry and the Origin of Life

  • Provides a broad overview of the origin and evolution of life on Earth from a chemical and biological perspective
  • Combines prebiotic and organic chemistry, geochemistry, molecular biology and evolution, palaeobiology and microbiology
  • Adresses graduate students and researchers in Earth, life and space sciences, requiring no detailed specialist knowledge

Part of the book series: Advances in Astrobiology and Biogeophysics (ASTROBIO)

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
  2. The Geological Platform for the Origin of Life on Earth

    • Eva E. Stüeken, Nicholas J. Gardiner
    Pages 63-86
  3. Origin of Nucleic Acids

    • Frank Trixler
    Pages 117-137
  4. Abiotic Synthesis and Role of Amphiphiles in the Encapsulation Process in Life’s Origin

    • Augustin Lopez, Carolina Chieffo, Michele Fiore
    Pages 139-164
  5. First Steps Towards Molecular Evolution

    • Oliver Trapp
    Pages 165-182
  6. Virus Origins and the Origin of Life

    • Donald Pan
    Pages 183-203
  7. Reconstructing the Last Universal Common Ancestor

    • Anthony M. Poole
    Pages 205-226
  8. Earliest Traces of Life as a Window on Life’s Origins

    • Barbara Cavalazzi, Keyron Hickman-Lewis, André Brack, Sherry L. Cady
    Pages 227-254
  9. Back Matter

    Pages 291-296

About this book

This book presents an overview of current views on the origin of life and its earliest evolution. Each chapter describes key processes, environments and transition on the long road from geochemistry and astrochemistry to biochemistry and finally to the ancestors of today´s organisms. This book combines the bottom-up and the top-down approaches to life including the origin of key chemical and structural features of living cells and the nature of abiotic factors that shaped these features in primordial environments. 

The book provides an overview of the topic as well as its state of the art for graduate students and newcomers to the field. It also serves as a reference for researchers in origins of life on Earth and beyond.


Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Anna Neubeck

  • UK Centre for Astrobiology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Sean McMahon

About the editors

Anna Neubeck is an associate professor in mineralogy, petrology and tectonics with focus on deep biosphere and isotope geochemistry and currently a fellow at the Swedish collegium for advanced study in Uppsala. She has more than 30 articles and is a board member of The Swedish space researcher organisation (SRS),  SWAN (Swedish Astrobiology Network) and Geologins Dag. She works broadly with geochemistry and is an active participant in working groups such as PELE (PI, Planetary Analogs & Exobiology Lava Tube Expedition), Chemobrionics (working with pseudo fossils and biomorphs) and the H2020 funded biomineralization/enhanced bio-accelerated weathering project BAM! (Co-PI). She also has her own company, working with microbial colonisation of the deep subsurface. She has also got the Crafoord stipend from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on her work on caves in South Africa.

Sean McMahon is an astrobiologist. He is interested in the co-evolution of life and planetary environments across large spans of space and time. As a Chancellor’s Fellow (tenure-track) at the University of Edinburgh’s UK Centre for Astrobiology, his focus is on the search for traces of ancient life in rocks from Earth that resemble those from Mars. His work has been published in 30+ journal articles, and reported by a wide range of TV, radio, online and printed media. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and of the Geological Society of London, a member of the Palaeontological Association and the Astrobiology Society of Britain, and an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Astrobiology.

 


Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Prebiotic Chemistry and the Origin of Life

  • Editors: Anna Neubeck, Sean McMahon

  • Series Title: Advances in Astrobiology and Biogeophysics

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81039-9

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-81038-2Published: 04 January 2022

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-81041-2Published: 05 January 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-81039-9Published: 03 January 2022

  • Series ISSN: 1610-8957

  • Series E-ISSN: 1613-1851

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 296

  • Number of Illustrations: 21 b/w illustrations, 44 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Astrobiology, Organic Chemistry, Geochemistry, Microbiology, Biochemistry, general

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access