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" Vital dust : "
Christian de Duve.
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BL
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| Record Number
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878255
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| Main Entry
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De Duve, Christian
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| Title & Author
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Vital dust : : life as a cosmic imperative /\ Christian de Duve.
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| Publication Statement
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New York :: Basic Books,, [1995]
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, ©1995
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| Page. NO
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xix, 362 pages :: illustrations ;; 25 cm
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| ISBN
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0465090443
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: 0465090451
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: 9780465090440
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: 9780465090457
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| Bibliographies/Indexes
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Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-350) and index.
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| Contents
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The search for Origins -- The First Catalysts of Life -- The Fuel of Emerging life -- The Advent of RNA -- RNA Takes Over -- The Code -- Genes in the Making -- Freedom and Constraints -- Encapsulating Life -- Turning Membranes into Machines -- Adaptation to Life in Confinement -- The Ancestor of All Life -- The Universality of Life -- Bacteria Conquer the World -- The Making of a Eukaryote -- The Primitive Phagocyte -- The Guests That Stayed -- The benefits of cellular Collectivism -- The Greening of the Earth -- The First Animals -- Animals Fill the Oceans -- Animals Move Out of the Sea -- The Web of Life -- The Virtues of Junk DNA -- The Step to human -- The brain -- The Workings of the Mind -- The Works of the Mind -- The Future of Life -- The Meaning of life.
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| Abstract
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The author guides us on a wondrous journey through the past four billion years, from the formation of the first biomolecules to the complexities of the human mind, from microscopic chains of amino acids and nucleotides to cataclysmic events in distant galaxies, arriving at the compelling conclusion that the universe is strewn with "vital dust" capable of spawning life anywhere under the right conditions. Life and mind are not accidents; they are natural manifestations of matter. At the heart of Vital Dust is the concept of seven increasingly complex "ages" of life on Earth. With each age, de Duve shows the key event that defined the age and the new event that led to the next. He argues that simple, deterministic chemical reactions put life on track but that other mechanisms led inexorably to greater complexity and biodiversity: the development of a lock-and-key system that serves as the universal device of biological recognition at the molecular level; the emergence of a common ancestor of all organisms, from amoebas to humans; the great oxygen holocaust; the conversion of some bacteria into complex cells; and the successive improvements in reproductive strategies that made possible the spectacular diversity of life on Earth.
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| Subject
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Evolution (Biology)
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Life (Biology)
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Life-- Origin.
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Évolution (biologie)
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Evolution (Biology)
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Evolution.
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Life (Biology)
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Life (Biology)
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Life-- Origin.
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Life-- Origin.
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Vie (biologie)
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Vie (biologie)-- Origines.
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Origin of Life.
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Biogenese.
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Evolutie.
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Biological Evolution.
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Evolution, Chemical.
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| Dewey Classification
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577
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| LC Classification
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QH325.D42 1995
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| NLM classification
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2003 A-805
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QH 325D299v 1995
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42.02bcl
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