EarthExceptional

• http://wiki.keithl.com/EarthExceptional

Is Earth Exceptional?

The Quest for Cosmic Life

• Mario Livio & Jack Szostak . 2024 . 576.83 LIVIO . Cedar Mill Library

• p001 Chapter 1: A Freak Chemical Accident or a Cosmic Imperative?

• p022 Galileo: "I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who has given us our senses, reason, and intelligence, wishes us to abandon their use"

• p025 Chapter 2: The Origin of Life: The RNA World

• p033 Ribonuclease P !RNase P

  • broad class of RNA+Protein molecules that cut specific cellular RNAs in specific ways

• p033 The RNA does the work, the attached protein neutralizes the large negative charge of the RNA molecule

• p033 Sidney Altman and colleagues added Mg++ magnesium ions, achieving similar neutralization

• p034 discoveries of many self-cleaving RNAs that catalyze chemical reactions

• p034 Walter Gilbert catchphrase RNA World

• p037 Yale biochemist Thomas Steitz The ribosome is a ribozyme

• p038 RNA World replaced by more stable DNA

• p039 Chapter 3: The Origin of Life: From Chemistry to Biology

• p043 formose synthesis, sugar from formaldehyde

• p046 British chemist John Sutherland

• p048 pH buffer and catalyst makes 2-aminooxazole 2AO synthesis efficient, systems chemistry example

• p048 2AO plus glyceraldehyde produces [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribose_aminooxazoline | RAO

• p057 Where did SO₂ come from? Volcanic eruptions. Pinatubo released enough SO₂ haze to cool Earth for 2 years.

• p067 Appendix: Chemical Structures and Reactions

• p073 Chapter 4: The Origin of Life: Amino Acids and Peptides

• p083 Chapter 5: The Origin of Life: The Road to the Protocell

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• p119 Chapter 6: Putting it All Together: From Astrophysics and Geology to Chemistry and Biology

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• p141 Chapter 7: Extraterrestrial Life on Solar System Planets?

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• p167 Chapter 8: Extraterrestrial Life on Solar System Moons?

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• p189 Chapter 9: Life Out There: The Astronomical Quest

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• p219 Chapter 10: Life as We Don't Know It: The Design of Natural and Unnatural Life-Forms

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• p231 Chapter 11: The Hunt for Intelligence: Preliminary Thoughts

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• p257 Chapter 12: The Hunt for Intelligence: The Searches

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• p271 Chapter 13: Epilogue: And Immanent Breakthrough?

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• p285 Acknowledgements

• p287 Selected Further Reading
• p301 Lustin-Yaeger et. al. 2018, "Detecting Ocean Glint on Exoplanets Using Multiphase Mapping," Astronomical Journal 156 no. 6 December

  • summary pdf

• p311 Index