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Astronomical Origins of Life: Steps Towards Panspermia (Softcover Reprint of the Original 1st 2000)

Astronomical Origins of Life

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"Astronomical Origins of Life" by B. Hoyle, N.C. Wickramasinghe is a astronomy book and space science reference focused on General Astronomy. Best for students, researchers, and serious astronomy enthusiasts.

Living material contains about twenty different sorts of atom combined into a set of relatively simple molecules. Astrobiologists tend to believe that abiotic mater ial will give rise to life in any place where these molecules exist in appreciable abundances and where physical conditions approximate to those occurring here on Earth. We think this popular view is wrong, for it is not the existence of the building blocks of life that is crucial but the exceedingly complicated structures in which they are arranged in living forms. The probability of arriving at biologically significant arrangements is so very small that only by calling on the resources of the whole universe does there seem to be any possibility of life originating, a conclusion that requires life on the Earth to be a minute component of a universal system. Some think that the hugely improbable transition from non-living to living mat ter can be achieved by dividing the transition into many small steps, calling on a so-called 'evolutionary' process to bridge the small steps one by one. This claim turns on semantic arguments which seek to replace the probability for the whole chain by the sum of the individual probabilities of the many steps, instead of by their product. This is an error well known to those bookies who are accustomed to taking bets on the stacking of horse races. But we did not begin our investigation from this point of view.

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Best For: Readers interested in the scientific discussion of life's origins from an astronomical perspective.
Focus: Examines the role of astronomical factors in the emergence of life and explores the concept of panspermia.
Covers: The book addresses the chemical composition of living material and challenges common astrobiological assumptions about abiotic material giving rise to life.
Why It Matters: It offers a critical perspective on how life might originate beyond Earth, contributing to debates in astronomy, biology, and the study of life's evolution.

"Astronomical Origins of Life" by B. Hoyle, N.C. Wickramasinghe is a astronomy book and space science reference focused on General Astronomy. Best for students, researchers, and serious astronomy enthusiasts.

Topic: General Astronomy

Author: B. Hoyle, N.C. Wickramasinghe

Who this is for:

  • Astronomy students
  • Researchers and advanced hobbyists
  • Readers exploring space science topics

Why this book matters: It matters because it helps readers build a stronger understanding of astronomy concepts, observations, and scientific ideas related to space.

Living material contains about twenty different sorts of atom combined into a set of relatively simple molecules. Astrobiologists tend to believe that abiotic mater ial will give rise to life in any place where these molecules exist in appreciable abundances and where physical conditions approximate to those occurring here on Earth. We think this popular view is wrong, for it is not the existence of the building blocks of life that is crucial but the exceedingly complicated structures in which they are arranged in living forms. The probability of arriving at biologically significant arrangements is so very small that only by calling on the resources of the whole universe does there seem to be any possibility of life originating, a conclusion that requires life on the Earth to be a minute component of a universal system. Some think that the hugely improbable transition from non-living to living mat ter can be achieved by dividing the transition into many small steps, calling on a so-called 'evolutionary' process to bridge the small steps one by one. This claim turns on semantic arguments which seek to replace the probability for the whole chain by the sum of the individual probabilities of the many steps, instead of by their product. This is an error well known to those bookies who are accustomed to taking bets on the stacking of horse races. But we did not begin our investigation from this point of view.

AuthorB. Hoyle, N.C. Wickramasinghe
PublisherSpringer
Published2012-10-13
ISBN-139789401058629
BindingPaperback
Pages381
LanguageEnglish
SubjectsScience
TopicGeneral Astronomy

Format: Paperback

Length: 381 pages

Language: English

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