Life as We Know It (eBook)

Preface; Christian de Duve. Foreword; David J. Chapman. Brief Introduction; Joseph Seckbach. Acknowledgements; Joseph Seckbach. List of authors and their addresses. PART 1: BIODIVERSITY AND EXTREMOPHILES. The Extremophiles: Diversity of Microbial Environments; J. Seckbach. Prokaryotic Life; A. Oren. The Algae–Diverse Life Forms and Global Importance; R.L. Chapman, D. Waters. Fungal Lives; I.K. Ross. Life in Saline and Hypersaline Environments; A. Oren. Thermophilic Communities as Autonomous Ecosystems; E. Bonch-Osmolovskaya. Life in Ice; N. Gunde-Cimerman. Life under Pressure: Deep-Sea Microbial Ecology; Ch. Tamburini. PART 2: LIFE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE NEW SCIENCE OF ASTROBIOLOGY. The Origin of Life on Earth and in the Universe. Early Precursors of Life in the Solar Nebula; J. Llorca. Is Life on Earth Accidental? Natural Selection and the Second Law of Thermodynamics; M.E. Schrader. From the Minimal Genome to the Minimal Cell: Theoretical and Experimental Investigations; P. Stano, et al. The Evolution of Life on Earth and in the Universe. Numerical Analysis of Biocomplexity; D. Deamer and J. Evans. Hepatitis B Virus: Conjectures on Human Interactions and Origin of Life; B. Blumberg. The Record of Early Life: In Search of Biosignatures; A.M. Carnerup, et al. Ground Truth: The Epistemology of Searching for the Earliest Life on Earth; E.C. Rose, et al. Eukaryogenesis: The Origin of the Eukaryotes; P.J.L. Bell. Symbiotic Forms of Life; J.J. Lee. Symbiosis: The Way of All Life; M.B. Saffo. Can There be a Limit on the Complexity of Life?; T.Shah. Evolution of Intelligence; C. Maccone. The Distribution of Life in the Universe. Searching other Worlds for Life as We Know It; Ch.P. McKay. The Role of Comets and meteorites in the Origin of Life; J.M. Trigo-Rodríguez. Astronomical Constraints for Life on Terrestrial Planets; P. Ehrenfreund and E.L. Martin. Prerequisites for the Evolution of Life on Exoplanets; H. Lammer, et al. Life as an Unfolding Biocosmos; J. Svoboda. We Have Not Detected Extraterrestrial Life, Or Have We?; C.H. Lineweaver. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence; S. Shostak. Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence; J. Krupicka. An Alternative Method for the Scientific Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life: The "Local SETI"; M. Teodorani. The Destiny of Life in the Universe. Destinies of the Universe and Life: The Final frontiers of Cosmology and Astrobiology; J. Chela-Flores. Destiny of Life and Religious attitudes; G. Coyne.PART 3: DEEPER ISSUES OF THE PHENOMENON OF LIFE. Philosophical and Theological Aspects of Life. Life in the Universe: Philosophical and Theological issues; R.J. Russell. Consciousness; R.J. Aumann. The Soul and the World-to Come According to Maimonides; G. Laras. Science and Religion: Some Suggestions for Conceptual Harmonizing Constraints; Y. Ne’e-man. Understanding the Nature of Life: A Matter of Definition or Theory?; C.E. Cleland. "And You Shall Choose Life"; S. Riskin. When Form Outlasts Its Medium; A. Elitzur. Epistemological Pluralism: Realities as Species-specific Interpretations of the Material World; T. Shah. Temperature Gradients as a Major Impetus Driving Prebiotic Evolution; K. Matsuno. Human Life as a Social Phenomenon. Life during Clinical Death: The "Near Death Experience" Phenomenon; N. Gadoth. Beauty in Nature; N. Gunde-Cimerman and P. Zalar. All Things Bright and Beautiful: The Hidden Cosmos of Microscopic Planktonic Algae; G.W. Beakes. Life and Pro Sports; L. Funderburke Artificial Life. Artificial Life: From Life-As-We-Know-It to Life-As It-Could Be; M. Sipper. Life-Cycles of Life; N. Umiel.PART 4: Summary and Conclusions. What do We Call Life? A Brief Outlook on Life; J. Seckbach, et al. Organism Index. Subject Index. Alphabetical List of authors/pages.