Chemical Evolution: Origins of the Elements, Molecules, and Living Systems

by Stephen F. Mason

This remarkable new book is for everyone interested in the origin and evolution of the universe. It relates the history of chemicals, from the earliest generation of the light elements in the Big Bang, to their transformation into heavier atoms and their subsequent molecular evolution into
myriad forms, including life on Earth. Spanning both organic and inorganic chemical combinations, the survey thus covers billions of years and involves evidence coming from the analysis of long-extinct as well as ongoing processes. The techniques used in this fascinating study are also described.
They include the analysis of many isotopes from ancient nuclear reactions and still-active radionuclides; molecules from space--frozen in meteorites or continuously generated in vast interstellar clouds; and the detritus of volcanic and geochemical activity. This is also the story of the
origin of life, which can be biochemically detected through the modern descendants of early microbial life-forms and from laboratory experiments in prebiotic chemistry. The author also describes the history of ideas in the study of chemistry and the development of modern theories on chemical
evolution. This is a highly readable account of central issues and ideas in modern science that will be read with absorbing interest by a wide range of students, researchers, and general readers.

Genres: Science, Evolution, Biology, Chemistry

Hardcover

First published March 28, 1991

Reviews

[Tim Pendry · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unusual choice for a five star entry especially as I have to admit to merely skim-reading the dense science of the last half of the book covering the energetics of living systems, organic replication, prebiotic chemistry and biomolecular handedness.

So why is it a five star when five star must include readability for me? Because what can be read and understood is the best introduction to scientific achievement in all the branches of chemistry since Lavoisier and Dalton up until the end of the 1980s (not later) that I have yet come across.

I may not have understood the detail but I ended up having a better understanding of how science works, just how recent our modern understanding of the world and, above all, how everything is connected in chemistry, merging with the edges of physics and cosmology as well as biology.

The reason it stays not merely in my library but by my desk is that it is so clearly laid out and logically argued that it gives me templates for further enquiry in almost every branch of chemistry and the history of science - it is evolutionary both in subject matter and in methodology.

Probably of most use to scientists and historians of science and more a work of dip-in reference to non-scientists who want to enquire further and be impressed by the sheer application of the scientific community, neverthless I am not sorry that I bought it and read it.

[Zrinka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mason shows the development of the ideas of the origin of life in a historical perspective, in step with the scientific views and discoveries. Going through a difficult topic with increasing complication as smoothly as through a detective fiction novel is what won me. I don't agree with all his conclusions but I liked it nevertheless :)