| Edition |
First edition |
| Phys Descr |
xvii, 312 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm |
| Note |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-286) and index |
| Contents |
By the action of your sun. Ancients ask where life comes from ; Anaximander explains the natural world ; Aristotle writes of "spontaneous generation" -- Provando e riprovando. Francesco Redi and the scientific method ; Van Helmont's recipe for mice ; "All life comes from an egg" -- The eye of a gnat. The Enlightenment transforms science ; Hooke pens Micrographia ; Antonie van Leeuwenhoek discovers the microscopic world -- The laboratory of the atheists. Voltaire subscribes to intelligent design ; Atheists seize upon the origin of life ; Buffon observes "reproduction" -- A vital force. Andrew Crosse's "extraordinary experiment" ; Vitalism and "imponderable fluids" ; Vestiges of the natural history of creation captivates Britain -- Breathed by the creator into a few forms or one. The Beagle sets sail for the Galápagos ; The Origin of species wins converts ; Charles Darwin imagines a "warm little pond" -- Pleasant, though they be deceitful dreams. Pasteur dispels the notion of a "useless God" ; Thomas Huxley grooms a new generation ; The germ theory of disease versus spontaneous generation -- No vestige of a beginning. The earth grows ever older ; J.B.S. Haldane imagines a "half-living" thing ; Alexander Oparin reimagines an ancient planet -- A laboratory earth. Stanley Miller creates the precursors for life ; Scientists flock to exobiology ; NASA enters the origin-of-life game -- The nucleic acid monopoly. Apollo 11 looks for clues on the moon ; Sidney Fox and his proteinoid microspheres ; Crick and Watson discover "the secret of life" -- Life everywhere. An enigmatic Martian rock ; Panspermia revisited ; Life in meteorites? -- One primordial form. The last universal common ancestor ; The Woesian revolution ; Scientists look to undersea vents -- A cell is born. The birth of the RNA world ; Genetic engineering opens doors ; A new gensis? -- Epilogue -- Appendix: Recipes for life |
| Summary |
An essential history of Western scientific studies into the origins of life examines historical discoveries in the contexts of philosophical debates, political change, and evolving understandings about the complexities of biology |
| Subject |
Life -- Origin -- Research -- History
|
|
Life -- Origin -- Philosophy -- History
|
|
Biology -- History
|
|
Science -- History
|
| Alt Author |
Cleaves, H. James, II, author
|
| OCLC # |
902661358 |
| ISBN # |
9780393083552 |
|
0393083551 |
|
