ENGLISH

Fitness of the cosmos for life: biochemistry and fine-tuning

By John Barrow , Simon Conway Morris , Stephen Freeland , Charles Harper

Book information

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Year
2008
ISBN
0521871026, 9780521871020, 9780511371080
LCC
QH327 .F548 2008
Open Library ID
OL10437883M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
4 MB (4210491 bytes)
Series
Cambridge astrobiology 2
Edition
1
Pages
526\526
Library
kolxoz
Time added
2009-07-20 03:45:11

Description

This highly interdisciplinary book highlights many of the ways in which chemistry plays a crucial role in making life an evolutionary possibility in the universe. Cosmologists and particle physicists have often explored how the observed laws and constants of nature lie within a narrow range that allows complexity and life to evolve and adapt. Here, these anthropic considerations are diversified in a host of new ways to identify the most sensitive features of biochemistry and astrobiology. Celebrating the classic 1913 work of Lawrence J. Henderson, The Fitness of the Environment for Life, this book looks at the delicate balance between chemistry and the ambient conditions in the universe that permit complex chemical networks and structures to exist. It will appeal to a broad range of scientists, academics, and others interested in the origin and existence of life in our universe.

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