Fitness of the Cosmos for Life: Biochemistry and Fine-Tuning

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511536557

Fitness of the Cosmos for Life

Biochemistry and Fine-Tuning

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This highly interdisciplinary 2007 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.

Review of the hardback:'… comprehensive … well referenced, and adequately indexed. … I would … recommend it to readers who are neither scientists, nor academics, nor theologians.'

Source: The Observatory

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Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-iv
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Contents
pp v-vi
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List of contributors
pp vii-x
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Foreword: The improbability of life
pp xi-xx
- By George M. Whitesides
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Preface
pp xxi-xxii
- By John D. Barrow, Professor of Mathematical Sciences in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge; Director, Millennium Mathematics Project, Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology, Earth Sciences Department, University of Cambridge, Stephen J. Freeland, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Charles L. Harper, Astrophysicist and planetary scientist and serves as Senior Vice President, John Templeton Foundation
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Acknowledgments
pp xxiii-xxiv
- By John D. Barrow, Professor of Mathematical Sciences in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge; Director, Millennium Mathematics Project, Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology, Earth Sciences Department, University of Cambridge, Stephen J. Freeland, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Charles L. Harper, Astrophysicist and planetary scientist and serves as Senior Vice President, John Templeton Foundation
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Part I - The fitness of “fitness”: Henderson in context
pp 1-2
- By John D. Barrow, Professor of Mathematical Sciences in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge; Director, Millennium Mathematics Project, Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology, Earth Sciences Department, University of Cambridge, Stephen J. Freeland, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Charles L. Harper, Astrophysicist and planetary scientist and serves as Senior Vice President, John Templeton Foundation
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1 - Locating “fitness” and L. J. Henderson
pp 3-19
- By Everett Mendelsohn, Harvard University
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2 - Revisiting The Fitness of the Environment
pp 20-30
- By Owen Gingerich, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
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3 - Is fine-tuning remarkable?
pp 31-48
- By John F. Haught, Department of Theology, Georgetown University, Washington
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4 - Complexity in context: the metaphysical implications of evolutionary theory
pp 49-69
- By Edward T. Oakes, University of St. Mary of the Lake-Mundelein Seminary
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5 - Tuning fine-tuning
pp 70-94
- By Ernan McMullin, Program in History and Philosophy of Science, University of Notre Dame
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Part II - The fitness of the cosmic environment
pp 95-96
- By John D. Barrow, Professor of Mathematical Sciences in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge; Director, Millennium Mathematics Project, Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology, Earth Sciences Department, University of Cambridge, Stephen J. Freeland, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Charles L. Harper, Astrophysicist and planetary scientist and serves as Senior Vice President, John Templeton Foundation
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6 - Fitness and the cosmic environment
pp 97-113
- By Paul C. W. Davies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Arizona State University
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7 - The interconnections between cosmology and life
pp 114-131
- By Mario Livio, Space Telescope Science Institute
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8 - Chemistry and sensitivity
pp 132-150
- By John D. Barrow, Professor of Mathematical Sciences in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge; Director, Millennium Mathematics Project
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9 - Fitness of the cosmos for the origin and evolution of life: from biochemical fine-tuning to the Anthropic Principle
pp 151-166
- By Julian Chela-Flores, The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics
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Part III - The fitness of the terrestrial environment
pp 167-168
- By John D. Barrow, Professor of Mathematical Sciences in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge; Director, Millennium Mathematics Project, Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology, Earth Sciences Department, University of Cambridge, Stephen J. Freeland, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Charles L. Harper, Astrophysicist and planetary scientist and serves as Senior Vice President, John Templeton Foundation
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10 - How biofriendly is the universe?
pp 169-196
- By Christian de Duve, de Duve Institute and Louvain Medical School, Catholic University of Louvain
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11 - Tuning into the frequencies of life: a roar of static or a precise signal?
pp 197-224
- By Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology, Earth Sciences Department, University of Cambridge
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12 - Life on earth: the role of proteins
pp 225-255
- By Jayanth R. Banavar, Pennsylvania State University, Amos Maritan, Instituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia, Dipartimento da Fisica G. Galilei, Universita di Padova
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13 - Protein-based life as an emergent property of matter: the nature and biological fitness of the protein folds
pp 256-279
- By Michael J. Denton, Department of Zoology, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan
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14 - Could an intelligent alien predict earth's biochemistry?
pp 280-317
- By Stephen J. Freeland, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
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15 - Would Venus evolve on Mars? Bioenergetic constraints, allometric trends, and the evolution of life-history invariants
pp 318-346
- By Jeffrey P. Schloss, Department of Biology, Westmont College
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Part IV - The fitness of the chemical environment
pp 347-348
- By John D. Barrow, Professor of Mathematical Sciences in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge; Director, Millennium Mathematics Project, Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology, Earth Sciences Department, University of Cambridge, Stephen J. Freeland, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Charles L. Harper, Astrophysicist and planetary scientist and serves as Senior Vice President, John Templeton Foundation
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16 - Creating a perspective for comparing
pp 349-365
- By Albert Eschenmoser, Laboratorium für Organische Chemie, ETH Hönggerberg
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17 - Fine-tuning and interstellar chemistry
pp 366-383
- By William Klemperer, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University
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18 - Framing the question of fine-tuning for intermediary metabolism
pp 384-420
- By Eric Smith, Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, Harold J. Morowitz, Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, East Building 207
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19 - Coarse-tuning in the origin of life?
pp 421-439
- By Guy Ourisson, Centre de Neurochimie, Université Louis Pasteur
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20 - Plausible lipid-like peptides: prebiotic molecular self-assembly in water
pp 440-455
- By Shuguang Zhang, Center for Biomedical Engineering and the Center for Bits and Atoms, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Fitness of the Cosmos for Life

Biochemistry and Fine-Tuning

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