Origins of Life
Origins of Life Books
Product Description
How did life on Earth originate? Did replication or metabolism come first in the history of life? In the second edition of the acclaimed Origins of Life, distinguished scientist and science novelist Freeman Dyson examines these questions and discusses the two main theories that try to clarify how naturally occurring chemicals may possibly organize themselves into living creatures. The majority view is that life started with replicating molecules, the precursors of modern genes. The minority belief is that random populations of molecules evolved metabolic activities before exact replication existed and that natural selection drove the evolution of cells toward greater complexity for a long time without the benefit of genes. Dyson analyzes both of these theories with reference to recent vital discoveries by geologists and chemists, aiming to stimulate new experiments that may possibly help choose which theory is right. This second edition covers the impact revolutionary discoveries such as the existence of ribozymes, enzymes made of RNA; the likelihood that many of the most ancient creatures are thermophilic, living in hot environments; and evidence of life in the most ancient of all terrestrial rocks in Greenland have had on our thoughts about how life started. It is a clearly written, fascinating book that will fascinate to anyone interested in the origins of life.
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I like science fiction, and this book is science fiction, but with one serious flaw: The author is a physicist and his lack of training in chemisty, genetics, and biology is an embarrassment throughout the book; which I guess is why he kept it to 90 pages; he ran out of things to say. Having a physicist clarify biology is like having a biologist clarify physics. Hello?! Does this make sense? No, and neither does this book.
Rating: 1 / 5
Fantastic small book. A excellent way to spend an hour and learn a lot on the way.
Rating: 5 / 5
my eyes glazed over on the chapter with the math but i was still able to get a clad overall review of the key issues..he has his own favorite theory but acknowledges opposing ones..i respect that. i feel more ready to tackle other books on the theme, as a result
Rating: 4 / 5
An brilliant book about the origins of life. Dyson does an brilliant job of clarifying the main issues as regards the origins of life even as introducing some of his own thoughts. He keeps it all together in a very tight package.
His own theory about the origin of life is quite fascinating and probably may possibly be expanded upon, especially in light of other, similar mathematical treatments such as those of Manfred Eigen.
Rating: 5 / 5
Dyson is everlastingly worth reading. And this book is a very helpful introduction to some theories about the origin of life. Dyson starts by stating three of them. The first theory is Oparin’s, where cell frameworks originate first, enzymes second, and genes third. The second theory is Eigen’s, where genes are first, enzymes second, and cells third. And the third theory is from Cairns-Smith and has clay first, enzymes second, genes third, and cells fourth.
As Dyson clarifies, for the Eigen theory to work, four “catastrophes” need to be avoided. First is the “error catastrophe,” where there are simply too many errors in replication of long RNA molecules. Second is the “selfish RNA catastrophe,” where an RNA molecule mutates and dominates the scene, but the mutation takes away its critical role as a vehicle. Third is the “small-circuit catastrophe,” where a mutated RNA molecule catalyzes the incorrect reaction (a later one in a chain than the proper one). Fourth is the “populace collapse catastrophe,” where one simply runs
out of a critical component. Dyson wants to pursue other something other than the well loved Eigen theory, not just to be different, but also to try to avoid the error catastrophe. That’s why he constructs a “toy develop” for the Oparin theory that can allow up to a 25% error rate.
Dyson concludes with a few “open questions.” One of the most fundamental is, “Given that a populace of molecules is able to maintain itself in homeostatic equilibrium at a steady level of metabolism, how many molecular species must the populace control?” This leads to the question, “What is the smallest populace that is able to constitute a self-replicating system.” Dyson tells about the experiments of Spiegelman (which produced a virus RNA with only 220 nucleotides) and of Eigen (which produced one with 120 nucleotides).
This book is simple to read and informative.
Rating: 5 / 5