Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T08:16:30.016Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Precellular Evolution and the Origin of Life: Some Notes on Reductionism, Complexity and Historical Contingency

from Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2017

By
Antonio Lazcano
Edited by
Andreas Losch
Andreas Losch
Affiliation:
Universität Bern, Switzerland
Get access

Summary

A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Chapter
Information
What is Life? On Earth and Beyond , pp. 75 - 94
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2017

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bada, J. L. & Lazcano, A. (2003). Prebiotic soup: revisiting the Miller experiment. Science, 300, 745–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bohr, N. (1933). Light and life. Nature, 133, 457–9.Google Scholar
Bowler, P. J. (1988). The Non-Darwinian Revolution: Reinterpreting a Historical Myth, Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Budin, I. & Szostak, J. W. (2010). Expanding roles for diverse physical phenomena during the origin of life. Annual Review of Biophysics, 39, 245–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burke, J. G. (1991). Cosmic Debris: Meteorites in History, Berkeley, CA: California University Press.Google Scholar
Campos, L. A. (2015). Radium and the Secret of Life, Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, E. A. (1981). Genes, Radiation, and Society: The Life and Work of H J Muller, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. (1863). Doctrine of heterogeny and modification of species. Athenaeum, Apr. 25, 554–5.Google Scholar
Darwin, C., Barrett, P. H., Gautrey, P. J. et al. (1987). Charles Darwin's Notebooks. 1836–1844, London: British Museum (Natural History).Google Scholar
Darwin, F. (1887). The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin. Vol. III, London: J. Murray.Google Scholar
Falk, R. & Lazcano, A. (2012). The forgotten dispute: A. I. Oparin and H. J. Muller on the origin of life. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 34, 373–90.Google Scholar
Fara, P. (2002). An Entertainment for Angels: Electricity in the Enlightenment, New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Farley, J. (1977). The Spontaneous Generation Controversy from Descartes to Oparin, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Fox-Keller, E. (2002). Making Sense of Life: Explaining Biological Development with Models, Metaphors, and Machines, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedmann, H. C. (1997). From Friedrich Wöhler's urine to Eduard Buchner's alcohol. In Cornish-Bowden, A, ed., New Beer in an Old Bottle: Eduard Buchner and the Growth of Biochemical Knowledge, Valencia: Universitat de Valencia, pp. 67–122.Google Scholar
Fry, I. (2006). The origins of research into the origins of life. Endeavour, 30, 24–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garcia-Ruiz, J. M., Hyde, S. T., Carnerup, A. M. et al. (2003). Self-assembled silica-carbonate structures and detection of ancient microfossils. Science, 302, 1194–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
de Goncourt, E. & de Goncourt, J. (1904). Journal des Goncourt–Mémoires de la vie littéraire …: 1862–1865, Paris: E. Fasquelle.Google Scholar
Graham, L. R. (1972). Science and Philosophy in the Soviet Union, New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Haeckel, E. (1862). Die Radiolarien (Rhizopoda radiaria), Berlin: Verlag von Georg ReimerCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haeckel, E. (1876). The History of Creation: or the Development of the Earth and its Inhabitants by the Action of Natural Causes, trans. Lankester, E. R., London: Henry S. King Co.Google Scholar
Herrera, A. L. (1942). A new theory of the origins and nature of life. Science, 96, 14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huxley, J. (2010). Evolution: The Modern Synthesis: The Definitive Edition, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kamminga, H. (1988). Historical perspective: the problem of the origin of life in the context of developments in biology. Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, 18, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaufmann, S. A. (1993). The Origins of Order, New York: Oxford University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamarck, J. B. (1914). Zoological Philosophy, trans. Elliot, H, London: Macmillan and Co.Google Scholar
Lazcano, A. (2003). Hooke and generation of molds. Science, 301, 1845.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lazcano, A. (2007). Prebiotic evolution and the origin of life: is a system-level understanding feasible? In: Rigoutsos, I. and Stephanopoulos, G., eds., Systems Biology, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, pp. 57–78.Google Scholar
Lazcano, A. (2008). What is life? A brief historical overview. Chemistry and Biodiversity, 5, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lazcano, A. (2010). Historical development of origins of life. In Deamer, D. W and Szostak, J., eds., Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology: The Origins of Life, Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Press, pp. 1–16.Google Scholar
Lazcano, A. (2014). The RNA World: stepping out of the shadows. In Trueba, G., ed., Why Does Evolution Matter? The Importance of Understanding Evolution, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 101–19.Google Scholar
Lehman, I. R., Zimmerman, S.B., Adler, J. et al. (1958). Enzymatic synthesis of deoxyribonucleotic acid. V. Chemical composition of enzymatically synthesized deoxyribonucleic acid. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 44: 1191–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehn, J-M. (2002). Toward self-organization and complex matter. Science, 295, 2400–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leicester, H. M. (1974). Development of Biochemical Concepts from Ancient to Modern Times, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewontin, R. C. & Levin, B. (2007). Biology Under the Influence: Dialectical Essays on Ecology, Agriculture, and Health, New York, NY: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
Mann, T. (1947). Doktor Faustus, trans. Lowe-Porter, H. T, New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Mayr, E. (1997). This is Biology, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
McKay, D. S., Gibson, E. K., Jr., Thomas-Keprta, K. L. et al. (1996). Search for past life on Mars: possible relic biogenic activity in martian meteorite ALH84001. Science, 273, 924–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, S. L. (1953). A production of amino acids under possible primitive Earth conditions. Science, 117, 528.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Montillo, R. (2013). The Lady and her Monsters: a Tale of Dissections, Real-Life Dr. Frankensteins, and the Creation of Mary Shelley's Masterpiece, New York, NY: William Morrow.Google Scholar
Morange, M. (2012). The recent evolution of the question “What is Life?”. History and Philosophy of Life Sciences, 34, 425–38.Google ScholarPubMed
Muller, H. J. (1926). The gene as the basis of life. Proceedings of the 1st International Congress of Plant Sciences, Ithaca, pp. 897–921.Google Scholar
Muller, H. J. (1960). In Tax, S and Callender, C., eds., Evolution after Darwin: The University of Chicago Centennial Discussions, Panel One. The Origin of Life, Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 69–105.Google Scholar
Muller, H. J. (1961). Genetic nucleic acid: Key material in the origin of life. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 5, 1–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muller, H. J. (1966). The gene material as the initiator and the organizing basis of life. American Naturalist, 100, 493–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagy, B. (1975). Carbonaceous Meteorites, Amsterdam: Elsevier Scientific Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Oken, L. (1805). Die Zeugung (The Creation), Bamberg-Würzburg: Joseph Anton Goebhardt.Google Scholar
Oparin, A. I. (1924). Proiskhozhedenie Zhizni (Mosckovskii Rabochii, Moscow), reprinted and translated in Bernal, J. D (1967) The Origin of Life, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
Oparin, A. I. (1938). The Origin of Life, New York, NY: McMillan.Google Scholar
Oparin, A. I. (1961). Life: Its Nature, Origin, and Development, New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Oparin, A. I. (1972). The appearance of life in the Universe, in Ponnamperuma, C., ed., Exobiology, Amsterdam: North-Holland, pp. 1–15.Google Scholar
Orgel, L. E. (2008). The implausibility of metabolic cycles in the primitive Earth. PLoS Biology, 6, 18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peretó, J. & Catalá, J. (2007). The renaissance of synthetic biology. Biological Theory, 2, 128–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peretó, J., Bada, J. L., & Lazcano, A. (2009). Charles Darwin and the origins of life. Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, 39, 395–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perezgasga, L., Silva, E., Lazcano, A., & Negrón-Mendoza, A. (2003). Herrera's sulfocyanic theory on the origin of life: a critical reappraisal. International Journal of Astrobiology, 2, 1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saladino, R., Botta, G., Bizzarri, B. M., Di Mauro, E., & García-Ruiz, J. M. (2016). A global scale scenario for prebiotic chemistry: silica based self-assembled mineral structures and formamide. Biochemistry, 55, 2806–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sankaran, N. (2012). How the discovery of ribozymes cast RNA in the roles of both chicken and egg in origin-of-life theories. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 43, 741–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Soyfer, V. N. (2001). The consequences of political dictatorship for Russian science. Nature Reviews Genetics, 2, 723–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steinbock, O., Cartwright, J. H. E., & Barge, L. M. (2016). The fertile physics of chemical gardens. Physics Today, 69(3), 44–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tagliagambe, S. (1978). Science, Philosophy, and Politics in the Soviet Union 1924–1939, Milano: Feltrinelli Editore (in Italian).Google Scholar
Urey, H. C. (1952). The Planets: their Origin and Development, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Watson, J. D. & Crick, F. H. C. (1953). A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature, 171, 737–8.Google ScholarPubMed
Wisniak, J. (2000). Jöns Jacob Berzelius a guide to the perplexed chemist. Chemistry Educator, 5, 343–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

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 Dropbox.

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.

Available formats
×