Origin of Life: What Everyone Needs to Know

by David W. Deamer

It seems likely that scientists will someday discover how life can emerge on habitable planets like the early Earth and Mars.

In Origin of Life: What Everyone Needs to Know , David W. Deamer has written a comprehensive guide to the origin of life that is organized in three sections. The first section addresses questions such as: Where do the atoms of life come from? How old is Earth? What was the Earth like before life began? Where does water come from? After each question is answered, there is a follow-up: How do we know? This expands the horizon of the book, explaining how scientists reach conclusions and why we can trust these answers. The second section describes how certain organic molecules can spontaneously assemble into populations of protocells that can undergo selection and evolve toward primitive living systems. Here Deamer proposes a truly novel concept that life did not begin in the ocean but instead in fresh water hot springs on volcanic land masses resembling Hawaii today. True knowledge is not just what we know, but equally important is what we don't yet know. In the third section Deamer lists the outstanding questions that must be addressed before we can finally answer a fundamental question of biology: How can life begin?

Genres: Science, Evolution, Nonfiction, Biology, History, Physics, Geology

124 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

David Wilson Deamer (born April 21, 1939) is an American biologist and Research Professor of Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Deamer has made contributions to the field of membrane biophysics. His work led to a novel method of DNA sequencing and a more complete understanding of the role of membranes in the origin of life.

He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1985, which supported research at the Australian National University in Canberra to investigate organic compounds in the Murchison meteorite. He served as the president of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life from 2013 to 2014.

Reviews

[Ricardo Moreno Mauro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este es un tema que me apaciona y estoy trabajando en el. Si no esres un especialista en cincia o si lo eres pero quieres una visón amplis del origen de la vida. El autor es un reputado conocer. Da una visión clara con un lenguaje para un público conocerdor el detam, pero para el científico entrega datos que son dificiles de obtener.

Me gustó mucho, además que bastante corto.

[Damián Lima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Por su vocabulario técnico, sus conceptos complejos y sus explicaciones poco amigables el libro oscila en el borde entre la divulgación científica y la ciencia pura y dura. Recomendable para quienes ya tengan conocimiento previo sobre temas científicos, especialmente biología, astronomía y astrobiología, o para quienes verdaderamente estén muy pero muy interesados por el tema y tengan la paciencia de quemarse las pestañas para comprender cada párrafo de hipótesis y conclusiones complejas. Más allá de todo esto y del formato poco amigable para el no iniciado, la premisa principal del libro es novedosa, interesante y está bien justificada: la idea, resumiendo de forma ligera la cuestión, es que el pasaje de lo no vivo (moléculas orgánicas) hacia lo vivo (células primitivas con capacidad de emplear energía y reproducirse y mil cosas más) no se habría producido en las profundidades oceánicas como una vez se creyó (tanto el agua salada como la inmensidad del lugar son elementos hostiles a reacciones importantes), sino en charcas de agua dulce formadas por lluvias en regiones anexas a volcanes activos, sitios ideales para la concentración de elementos y nutrientes que reaccionan en un lugar acotado lleno de energía; la idea es que se produjeron ciclos de desecación y de humedad constantes que hicieron evolucionar a las moléculas, produjeron la encapsulación de los componentes, y con algo así como 500 millones de años de reacciones azarosas... ¡BAM!... vida.

[Douglas Perry, PhD · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a concise and clear introduction to the general principles and conditions that must underlie abiogenesis, even though the actual mechanism of abiogenesis is as yet unknown. The reader need not know physics and biology to understand the book, but such knowledge would serve as a good foundation for appreciating the concepts presented. I enjoyed this book so much that I intend to form a reading group around it.

[Jessica Kuzmier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good basic overview and comprehensive thought experiment about how life came to be on planet Earth. Simple yet intelligent language explaining the chemical processes that led to what we are today, with creative yet plausible hypotheses.

[Wing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and concise, this book uses the Hot Spring Hypothesis as a model to discuss the requirements for the abiotic to become alive. These include compartmentation, entropy favourable self-assembly, autocatalysis, progenote, homeostasis – among many others. Professor Deamer is succinct, authoritative, and perspicuous. The lay reader will gain a good grasp of the main concepts. I recommend Smith and Morowitz for further understanding of the topic – this is indeed included in the bibliography. The paperback edition does not include the colour plates, so some imagination will be needed but that is certainly not a hurdle at all. Four stars.