Thermodynamic Inversion: Origin of Living Systems

by Vladimir N. Kompanichenko

Overview

This book discusses the theory, general principles, and energy source conditions allowing for the emergence of life in planetary systems. The author examines the material conditions found in natural hydrothermal sites, the appropriate analogs of prebiotic environments on early Earth. He provides an overview of current laboratory experiments in prebiotic materials chemistry and substantiation of a new direction for the experiments in the origin of life field.

• Describes thermodynamic inversion and how it relates to the living cell;

• Examines the current direction of experiments on prebiotic materials chemistry;

• Introduces and substantiates necessary conditions for the emergenceof life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319535104
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	03/05/2017
Edition description:	1st ed. 2017
Pages:	275
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Vladimir N. Kompanichenko, Ph.D. (Geology) is a leading research scientist at the Institute for Complex Analysis of Regional Problems (the Russian Academy of Science) in Birobidzhan. He carries out the interdisciplinary research in Astrobiology that includes the theoretical elaboration of the inversion concept of life origin in fluctuating hydrothermal medium (on Earth and beyond), and the experimental exploration of hydrothermal systems aimed to detection of organic compounds and describing of pressure-temperature oscillations. He worked as a visiting scientist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Department of Biochemistry (2001), and at University of California at Santa Cruz, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (2004-2006). For the period of 1997-2004 he took a part-time position Professor at the two Universities in Khabarovsk (Russia) teaching Natural Science and the special course in Astrobiology.

Table of Contents

Astrobiology: Approaches to the Origin of Life on Earth and Beyond.- Part I. Life and a Principal Way of Its Origin in the Universe.- General Thermodynamic Characteristics of Living Systems.- Principal Way of Life Origin in the Universe.- General Characteristics of the Origin-of-life Medium.- Part II. Origin of Initial Living Systems on Early Earth.- Irreversible Prebiotic Evolution in Hydrothermal Systems.- Exchange of Information During Prebiotic Evolution.- Origin of Primary Living Systems on Earth in Course of Thermodynamic Inversion.- Part III. Kamchatka Geothermal Region AS A Testing Ground for Investigation OF THE Origin-of-Life Process.- Hydrothermal Systems in Kamchatka Peninsula and the Adjoining Region: Geological and Hydrochemical Characteristics.- Changeability of Pressure, Temperature and Concentrations of Components in the Explored Hydrothermal Systems.- Organic Matter in the Hydrothermal Systems of Kamchatka Peninsula and Nearby Area.