Cosmic Biology How Life Could Evolve on Other Worlds
It is very unlikely that little green humanoids are living on Mars. But what are the possible life forms that might exist in our Solar System and how might they have evolved? This uniquely authoritative and imaginative book on the possibilties for alien l
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Louis Neal Irwin and Dirk Schulze-Makuch
Cosmic Biology How Life Could Evolve on Other Worlds
Published in association with
& Springer
Praxis Publishing Chichester, UK
Professor Louis Neal Irwin The University of Texas at El Paso El Paso Texas USA
Professor Dirk Schulze-Makuch Washington State University Pullman Washington USA
SPRINGER±PRAXIS BOOKS IN POPULAR ASTRONOMY SUBJECT ADVISORY EDITOR: John Mason, M.B.E., B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D. e -ISBN 978-1-4419-1647-1 ISBN 978-1-4419-1646-4 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-1647-1 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA) except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Cover design: Jim Wilkie Project copy editor: Dr John Mason Typesetting: BookEns, Royston, Herts., UK Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (springer.com)
Contents
Preface List of illustrations
xv xix
1
Rare Earths and Life Unseen 1.1 How habitats come about 1.1.1 Genesis: A scientific story of creation 1.1.2 How solar systems and planets form 1.1.3 Exoplanets 1.2 The Rare Earth model 1.3 The Life Unseen model 1.4 Strategy for the study of cosmic biology 1.5 Chapter summary 1.6 References and further reading
1 3 3 5 7 9 10 11 13 14
2
Life, Chemistry, Action! 2.1 The challenge of defining " l i f e " 2.1.1 Life as a duality of process and entity 2.1.2 Defining a living organism 2.2 Matter gone wild: the special chemistry of life 2.2.1 The elemental composition of living things 2.2.2 Biomolecules 2.2.3 Macromolecules 2.3 The advantages of liquids for life 2.3.1 General properties of liquids 2.3.2 The special properties of water 2.4 The need for and sources of energy for living systems 2.4.1 Oxidation-reduction chemistry 2.4.2 Thermal energy 2.4.3 Kinetic energy 2.4.4 Ionic diffusion 2.4.5 Osmosis 2.4.6 Other sources of energy 2.5 Chapter Summary 2.6 References and further reading
15 15 16 17 21 22 25 29
3
Life's Fundamentals 3.1 Beginnings
32
32
32 34
36 36 38 39 39 40 41 42 43 45 45
vi
Cosmic Biology
3.2
3.3
3.4 3.5 4
3.1.1 A nine-step program for the origin of life on Earth 3.1.2 Qualifications and limitations 3.1.3 Alternative origin scenarios Organic evolution: the process of biological change through time 3.2.1 Selection 3.2.2 Chance 3.2.3 Heredity Ecosystems: from populations to pyramids 3.3.1 Food webs 3.3.2 Trophic structures Cha
