Life's origin

Description

Life's Origin takes us on an expansive tour of life's beginnings from the formation, literally billions of years ago, of a small cluster of life-generating chemical elements. The book explains the nonbiologic accumulation in the primordial oceans of small, simple, organic compounds; the linking of these into larger, more complicated molecules; the rise of gene-carrying chemicals; and finally, the advent of living cells more than 3.5 billion years ago. Presented in nontechnical language and including a valuable glossary of scientific terms, Life's Origin gives a state-of-the-art encapsulation of the fascinating work now being done as scientists begin to characterize life as the outcome of the evolution of cosmic matter. Book jacket.