The Emergence of Life
From Chemical Origins to Synthetic Biology

This fully updated and expanded edition addresses the origins of biological and synthetic life from a systems biology perspective.

Pier Luigi Luisi (Author)

9781108735506, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 February 2019

478 pages, 166 b/w illus. 12 tables
24.4 x 17.1 x 2.4 cm, 0.8 kg

'The Emergence of Life has the most thorough discussion we have ever read on this topic. The various avenues of research get full and deep, updated presentation, enhanced with pictures, graphs and tables. Author Pier Luigi Luisi often includes conversations with primary research specialists when their fields are under discussion.' Brig Klyce, Cosmic Ancestry

Addressing the emergence of life from a systems biology perspective, this new edition has undergone extensive revision, reflecting changes in scientific understanding and evolution of thought on the question 'what is life?'. With an emphasis on the philosophical aspects of science, including the epistemic features of modern synthetic biology, and also providing an updated view of the autopoiesis/cognition theory, the book gives an exhaustive treatment of the biophysical properties of vesicles, seen as the beginning of the 'road map' to the minimal cell - a road map which will develop into the question of whether and to what extent synthetic biology will be capable of making minimal life in the laboratory. Fully illustrated, accessibly written, directly challenging the reader with provocative questions, offering suggestions for research proposals, and including dialogues with contemporary authors such as Humberto Maturana, Albert Eschenmoser and Harold Morowitz, this is an ideal resource for researchers and students across fields including bioengineering, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, chemistry and chemical engineering.

Part I. Approaches to the Origin of Life: 1. Setting the stage
2. The hardware
3. Ascending the ramp of complexity
4. Experimental approaches to the origins of life
5. Origin of life from ground zero
Part II. What Is Life? The Bio-Logics of Cellular Life: 6. Autopoiesis - the invariant property
7. Cognition
Part III. Order and Organization in Biological Systems: 8. Self-organization
9. The notion of emergence
10. Self-replication and self-reproduction
Part IV. The World of Vesicles: 11. The various types of surfactant aggregates
12. Vesicle reactivity and transformations
13. Biochemistry and molecular biology in vesicles
Part V. Towards the Synthetic Biology of Minimal Cells: 14. A panoramic view of synthetic biology
15. The minimal cell.

Subject Areas: Evolution [PSAJ], Biology, life sciences [PS], Organic chemistry [PNN], Chemistry [PN], Mathematics & science [P]