Origins, Abiogenesis and the Search for Life in the Universe

What is the origin of life? How did life begin? Is there life on other planets? Are we alone? These are questions which have been asked for thousands of years. In this ground-breaking, revolutionary text, over 40 top scientists from around the world, provide the answers in 28 paradigm busting chapters. The first steps toward life began in a state of disequilibrium whereas the chemicals for life came from the stars and were churned together in deep sea thermal vents. Viruses may have served as mobile RNA worlds, injecting the necessary genetic elements into proto-cells thereby fashioning the first living cell. Some scientists have championed the belief that life on Earth came from other planets. Even if that were the case, this simply moves the question of life's origins elsewhere but does not explain the ultimate question. Be it on Earth or some other world, life had to begin via processes known as abiogenesis Obviously, there must have been an evolutionary progression beginning with simple chemical compounds to proto-life, then to DNA-equipped life capable of replicating itself. As detailed in this text, those prebiological evolutionary steps may have taken place in submarine alkaline hydrothermal vents and required various chemical interactions and divisions involving amino acids, polyphosphate-peptide synergy, the creating of biosynthetic pathways and the emergence of sparse metabolic network, and the assembly of pre-genetic information by primordial cells, with some championing compartmentalizaton, others, vesicles, and all this leading to an RNA world in which viruses and retroviruses played an important part. The origin of life and evolution of prokaryotes was not a matter of chance, but deterministic, probable and necessary and that these bioenergetic principles are likely to apply throughout the universe and on planets and moon in our own solar system, including Mars, Titan, and Europa. Some life forms may be based on arsenic, silicon, sulfur, and ammonia. Others may dwell deep beneath the surface of water worlds which are common in the universe. Some may have evolved on planets like our own. This means: life is everywhere, and, we are not alone.