Biological Innovations that Built the World A Four-billion-year Jour
The book is a detailed account of major biological events that contributed to create the present world and our species, with emphasis on cause-effect interrelationships and environmental impact. Its main goal is to guide the reader toward an understanding
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Biological Innovations that Built the World A Four-billion-year Journey through Life and Earth History
Biological Innovations that Built the World
Roberto Ligrone
Biological Innovations that Built the World A Four-billion-year Journey through Life and Earth History
Roberto Ligrone Department of Environmental, Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli” Caserta, Italy
ISBN 978-3-030-16056-2 ISBN 978-3-030-16057-9 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16057-9
(eBook)
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Front cover credit: By NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University – http://www. nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/lro-earthrise-2015, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia. org/w/index.php?curid=45729896
Nothing in science is accepted on the grounds of authority, revelation, faith, or longevity. Heresy is not hostile to science; it is the very process of science. Paul M. Bingham and Joanne Souza (2009)
To Gabriella and Stefano, the best part of my life, with love
Preface
All organisms living on Earth, however different, share hundreds of complex traits inherited from a common ancestor. The grand unification of biological sciences performed by the molecular revolution in the last decades has crystallized this notion, pointing to life as a unitary phenomenon. Quite paradoxically, in the same time interval, the level of specialization of biological sciences has risen to the point where researchers working in different areas have few occasions for cultural interaction and, sadly, know little biology outside their own field. This is a particularly serious problem for human bio
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