Abstract
Does life exist beyond our planet and, if so, is that life comparable with life forms we know here on the Earth? These are some of the most fascinating questions facing science today–particularly astrobiology, the study of the origin, evolution, Distribution and Destiny of Life in the Universe.
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Notes and References
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Cf. Glossary: “geochronology”; cf., also Schidlowski, M. (1995) Early Terrestrial Life: Problems of the oldest record, in Chela-Flores, J., M. Chadha, A. Negron-Mendoza, and T. Oshima (eds.). (1995) Chemical Evolution: Self-Organization of the Macromolecules of Life, A. Deepak Publishing, Hampton, Virginia, USA, pp. 65–80;. Mojzsis, S. J., Arrhenius, G., McKeegan, K.D., Harrison, T.M., Nutman, A.P. and Friend, C.R. (1996) Evidence for life on Earth before 3,800 million years ago, Nature 384, 55-59; Moorbath, S. (1995) Age of the oldest rocks with biogenic components, in Ponnamperuma, C. and Chela-Flores, J. (eds.). (1995) Chemical Evolution: The Structure and Model of the First Cell, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp. 85-94.
Cf. Glossary: “Archean”, “isotope”.
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This remark is true for eubacterial cell walls, but strictly speaking it cannot be considered an exception to protein synthesis, because these peptides with D-amino acids are not synthesized at the level of the ribosomes. cf. also Glossary, “amino acids”, “phospholipids”, “biochemistry”, “chirality” and the “genetic code”.
Cf. Glossary: under “weak interaction”.
Cf. Glossary: under “parity violation”.
Cf. Glossary: under “quantum chemistry”.
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Chela-Flores, J., Lemarchand, G. A. and Oro, J. (eds.), (2000) Astrobiology From the Big Bang to Civilization, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
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Chela-Flores, J. (2001). Introduction: What is Astrobiology?. In: The New Science of Astrobiology. Cellular Origin and Life in Extreme Habitats, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0822-8_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0822-8_1
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