Seven Clues to the Origin of Life: A Scientific Detective StoryThis book addresses the question of how life may have arisen on earth, in the spirit of an intriguing detective story. It relies on the methods of Sherlock Holmes, in particular his principle that one should use the most paradoxical features of a case to crack it. This approach to the essential biological problems is not merely light-hearted, but a fascinating scrutiny of some very fundamental questions. 'I know of no other book that succeeds as well as this one in maintaining the central question in focus throughout. It is a summary of the best evolutionary thinking as applied to the origins of life in which the important issues are addressed pertinently, economically and with a happy recourse to creative analogies.' Nature '... a splendid story - and a much more convincing one than the molecular biologists can offer as an alternative. Cairns-Smith has argued his case before in the technical scientific literature, here he sets it out in a way from which anyone - even those whose chemistry and biology stopped at sixteen - can learn.' New Statesman |
Contents
Inquest | 1 |
Messages messages | 9 |
Build your own E coli | 16 |
The inner machinery | 22 |
A garden path? | 31 |
Look more closely at the signposts | 38 |
A clue in a Chinese box | 50 |
Missing pieces | 58 |
The claymaking machine | 80 |
Gene1 | 87 |
Evolving by direct action | 98 |
Takeover | 107 |
Summingup The seven clues | 114 |
Appendix 1 | 117 |
Appendix 2 | 120 |
Glossary | 125 |
Common terms and phrases
adaptor aluminium amino acids biochemical biochemistry boxes carbon dioxide cells central chain chapter chemical chemical evolution clay crystals clay minerals clue coli complex complicated components connector piece control structure copies of copies core covalent bonds crystal genes dickite difficult easily effect enzymes error correction mechanisms evolution evolved example genetic information genetic material grow H H H heat agitation high-tech idea imagine ions kaolinite kaolinite layer kind last common ancestor letter pieces levels of supersaturation look low-tech machine machinery membranes message tape million natural selection needed negative charge nitrogen nucleotide units organic molecules organisation origin oxygen atoms particular pattern perhaps phlogiston possible pre-arrangement primary organisms primed nucleotides primitive Earth problem protein protein molecule replication ribosome secondary forces self-assembly sequence shape smectite solution sort stacking supersaturated supply structure synthesis things unity of biochemistry Valley of Fear water molecules wound-up