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Chapter 4: - Life

from Part I - Introduction to the Scientific Perspective on the Past

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2022

Brian Villmoare
Affiliation:
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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Summary

The two major questions posed by this chapter are: What is life and how do we define and identify it? How did life originate? It discusses different definitions of life and the role of entropy as a constraint. It discusses some forms that may or may not meet differing definitions of life (e.g. prions, viruses). The various hypotheses, studies, and discoveries pertaining to the origins of life are explored, including the Miller–Urey experiment, the Murcheson meteorite, and more recent NASA experiments relating to the potential origins of DNA and complex proteins. It also discusses the conditions on Earth during the origins of life, and presents the current hypotheses for the origins of water on this planet. It also reviews the candidates for the earliest life on Earth discovered in the fossil record, and explores just how we would identify the oldest life.

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Chapter
Information
The Evolution of Everything
The Patterns and Causes of Big History
, pp. 46 - 59
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Life
  • Brian Villmoare, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  • Book: The Evolution of Everything
  • Online publication: 03 November 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108862530.005
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  • Life
  • Brian Villmoare, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  • Book: The Evolution of Everything
  • Online publication: 03 November 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108862530.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Life
  • Brian Villmoare, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  • Book: The Evolution of Everything
  • Online publication: 03 November 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108862530.005
Available formats
×