E-Book Overview
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.
E-Book Content
F IT N E SS O F TH E C O SMO S F OR LIF E
Biochemistry and Fine-Tuning 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, 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 scientists, academics, and others working in a range of disciplines. John D. Bar r ow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project. He is the author of The Artful Universe Expanded (Oxford University Press, 2005) and The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless (Cape, 2005), as well as co-editor of Science and Ultimate Reality: Quantum Theory, Cosmology and Complexity (Cambridge University Press, 2004). Simon C onway Morris is Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology at the Earth Sciences Department, University of Cambridge. He is the author of Life’s Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe (Cambridge University Press, 2003). Stephen J. Freeland is Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His research focuses on the evolution of the genetic code. Charles L. Harper, Jr . is an astrophysicist and planetary scientist and serves as Senior Vice President of the John Templeton Foundation. He is co-editor of Science and Ultimate Reality: Quantum Theory, Cosmology and Complexity (Cambridge University Press, 2004); Visions of Discovery: New Light on Physics, Cosmology, and Consciousness (forthcoming from Cambridge University Press).
Cambridge Astrobiology Series Editors Bruce Jakosky, Alan Boss, Frances Westall, Daniel Prieur and Charles Cockell Books in the series
1. Planet Formation: Theory, Observations, and Experiments Edited by Hubert Klahr and Wolfgang Brandner ISBN 978-0-521-86015-4 2. Fitness of the Cosmos for Life: Biochemistry and Fine-Tuning Edited by John D. Barrow, Simon Conway Morris, Stephen J. Freeland and Charles L. Harper, Jr. ISBN 978-0-521-87102-0 3. Planetary Systems and the Origins of Life Edited by Ralph Pudritz, Paul Higgs and Jonathon Stone ISBN 978-0-521-87548-6
F I T N ES S O F TH E C O SM OS FOR LIFE Biochemistry and Fine-Tuning Edited by J O H N D . BA RROW University of Cambridge
S I M O N C O N WAY M O RRI S University of Cambridge