Biogenesis: Theories of Life's Origin [Paperback]

Noam Lahav (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195117557 | ISBN-13: 978-0195117554 | Publication Date: February 11, 1999

Biogenesis provides a detailed, critical discussion of the modern scientific study of the origin of life. It covers the entire history, including the biological, geological, and cosmological background. The author explains the rationale behind the main assumptions and experimental strategies of the study of the origin of life, and reviews its plethora of theories, models, scenarios, and controversies.
The book begins with the history of the search for life's origin from the Greek philosophers to contemporary scientists. The author introduces the reader to important aspects of scientific thinking, and covers the biases, successes, and failures of these thinkers. Part II succinctly describes selected attributes of life, which are connected to theories and controversies of the studies of the origin of life. The main features of the solar system and Earth, where life is assumed to have originated, are briefly reviewed in Part III. This section covers the formation of the planet, its primordial atmosphere and seas, and the Gaia theory. Part IV investigates the rationale of the scientific theories of the origin of life. It begins with the fundamental assumptions and guidelines, as well as the main experimental strategies used by origin-of-life researchers. The book proceeds with a search for clues in both the geological and biological records. It concludes with a critical, but objective discussion of the main reactions, processes, models, and scenarios suggested for the emergence of various attributes of life in prebiotic environment and the transition from inanimate to animate.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Before we can even address the origin of life, there looms the question of what life is anyway. In Biogenesis, Lahav quotes definitions of life culled from the scientific literature from 1855 to 1997. We see the special concerns of each, from Spenser's emphasis on evolution, to Schrodinger's on the law of physics, to Kauffman's on complexity theory. In pursuit of answers, scientists are using every technique from laboratory experiments to deep sea exploration to computer simulations. The most complete account of every approach and each important concept, theory, and experiment is found in this book. It is an invaluable resource for all serious students of origin-of-life research. Although much of this book is very technical, it is written in a highly accessible style. It is an outstanding contribution to the field." - Lucy Horwitz, Boston Book Review, March 2000

About the Author

Noam Lahav Emeritus Professor of Origin of life and Soil Science Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (February 11, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195117557
• ISBN-13: 978-0195117554
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,250,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A detailed look at theories of the origin of life, December 30, 2004

By 

Jill Malter ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Biogenesis: Theories of Life's Origin (Paperback)

This is an excellent and thorough book about the origin of life. It begins with some historical material on the subject. Then there's a some characteristics of the consitituents of cells. Lahav points out that one property of life is that all its fundamental constituents are non-living.

After that, there is a brief but important discussion of general thermodynamic considerations, including free energy, entropy, information content of DNA, and autocatalysis. From there, we go to a chapter on biochemical molecules and processes. And we see Martynas Ycas' definition of a biochemical system ("a system of catalysts regulating the transformation of other compounds so as to make available the system energy and matter for its further increase and maintenance"). In addition, there's a chapter on biological life, with four pages just to compile various definitions of life.

Now we're ready to take on the main problem. The basic assumptions are that the physical laws are applicable and that evolution takes place at the molecular level. The strategies include cosmogeochemical (characterizing the environments in which the first living entities formed), biological (looking for the oldest actual life forms), and biogeochemical (looking at the synthesis of biopolymers).

Lahav supplies some clues from biology about the origin of life, including chirality, multiplicity of steps to generate life, temperature at which life originated, common origin for RNA, the citric acid cycle, and "evolutionary clocks." Then we get into some specific lines of attack. The first is that ribose has a stability problem and adenine hydrolyzes. That gets us to look at a PNA (peptide nucleic acid) world and template-directed reactions. And we see Hartman's theory that the original code began with glycine, alanine, arginine, and proline. And we look at the issue of the "error threshold" of a copying process.

We then are introduced to another question: did the origin of life entail the use of minerals as scaffolds, adsorbents, catalysts, or information carriers? That includes a discussion of Wachtershauser's "iron-sulfur world." And there is a look at where on Earth life could have started: volcanoes, hot springs, bulk ocean water, bubbles, atmospheric water drops, lagoons, ocean floor, ocean surface, or hydrothermal vents.

The final chapter is about computer modeling of some biogeochemical scenarios. The book ends with a fine list of references.

I strongly recommend this book to those genuinely interested in the fascinating question of the origin of life on Earth.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge, December 16, 2002

By 

Andrew Jackson (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Biogenesis: Theories of Life's Origin (Hardcover)

Unlike the previous reviewer, I found the copious annotation of the text with references to be the salient (and most valuable) feature of this book. Indeed, the author does *not* make unsupported statements -- he supports them with actual references from the literature!

I do admit being sidetracked a few times by actually going to get some of these items from the library, but they were the things *I* was interested in, and the book would not have been well served by transformation into the weighty tome that inclusion of all these details would have made it.

14 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but keeps referring to other materials, December 23, 1999

By 

Rick Pierson (Dothan, AL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Biogenesis: Theories of Life's Origin (Paperback)

The beginning of the book deals with the historical views on the origin of life (such as the views of Greek philosophers, the debate over spontaneous generation, etc.). This section is very good, but it is probably not what a person would buy the book for. Once he starts discussing current origin-of-life studies, much of the work consists of unsupported statements (the statements are not supported in the book itself, but by other works, which the author provides pointers to. The reader must buy or gain access to the other works in order to get the details). Also, the index is very poor - if you read the book and find something interesting, mark it then and there - don't rely on ever being able to find it again. Still, there is up-to-date information that is missing from many other books on the subject.