Research Catalog

Title

Steps towards life / Manfred Eigen ; translation by Paul Woolley.

Author

Eigen, Manfred, 1927-2019

Publication

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1992.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Winkler, Ruthild, 1941-

Description

xii, 173 p. : ill. (some col.); 24 cm.

Summary

Eigen shows that life on Earth is the inevitable result of certain chance events that took place in the unique history of our planet. He introduces how to interpret the molecular 'fossil record'. Part one are ideas that are justified scientifically. Part two shows important biological ideas and the final section summarizes developments in molecular biology.

Uniform Title

Stufen zum Leben. English

Alternative Title

Stufen zum Leben.

Subject

• Origin of Life
• Life > Origin
• Molecular evolution
• Life > Origin
• Molecular biology
• Biological Evolution
• Molecular Biology

Note

• Translation of: Stufen zum Leben.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Machine derived contents note: PART I. "What was Life?" -- Theme and Variations -- 1. Life is Historical Reality -- 2. Can the Historical Origin of Life be Reconstructed? -- 3. Complexity as a Physical Problem -- 4. How does Information Arise? -- 5. Life is a Dynamic State of Matter Organized by Information -- 6. Is there a Principle of Order in Biological Systems? -- 7. Evolution Means the Optimization of Functional Efficiency -- 8. What are the Natural Prerequisites for the Origin of Life? -- 9. The Ladder of Organizational Levels -- 10. Unceasing Creation -- PART II. Vignettes from Molecular Biology -- 1. Sequence Comparison (Statistical Geometry) -- 2. Sequence Comparison (Examples) -- 3. How Old are the First Life Forms? -- 4. Nucleic Acids as Information Stores: The Transition from Chemistry to Biology -- 5. Structural Forms of the Nucleic Acids -- 6. The Proteins: Molecular Purveyors of Cellular Function -- 7. Instruction: Copying, Reading, and Translation -- 8. The Genetic Code -- 9. Quasi-Species: The Cloning of Mutant Distributions -- 10. Quasi-Species: The Structure of Mutant Distributions -- 11. Experiments in Evolution -- 12. Sequence Space -- 13. Viral Infection -- 14. Hypercycles and Comparements -- 15. Recombinant DNA -- Part Iii. -- Resume: Darwin is Dead -- Long Live Darwin! -- Epilogue -- Notes and Literature on the History of Molecular Biology.

ISBN

019854751X

LCCN

^^^91022349^

OCLC

• 24065458
• SCSB-14233956

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library