The nature of life and its potential to survive /
This book looks at the persistence of life and how difficult it would be to annihilate life, especially a species as successful as humanity. The idea that life in general is fragile is challenged by the hardiness of microbes, which shows that astrobiology on exoplanets and other satellites must be r...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cham :
Springer,
2017.
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| Series: | Astronomers' universe.
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| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | This book looks at the persistence of life and how difficult it would be to annihilate life, especially a species as successful as humanity. The idea that life in general is fragile is challenged by the hardiness of microbes, which shows that astrobiology on exoplanets and other satellites must be robust and plentiful. Microbes have adapted to virtually every niche on the planet, from the deep, hot biosphere, to the frigid heights of the upper troposphere. Life, it seems, is almost indestructible. The chapters in this work examine the various scenarios that might lead to the extermination of life, and why they will almost always fail. Life's highly adaptive nature ensures that it will cling on no matter how difficult the circumstances. Scientists are increasingly probing and questioning life's true limits in, on and above the Earth, and how these limits could be pushed elsewhere in the universe. This investigation puts life in its true astronomical context, with the reader taken on a journey to illustrate life's potential and perseverance. . |
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| Item Description: | Mutually Assured Destruction: Courtesy of the LHC? Electronic resource. |
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (466 pages) : illustrations. |
| Bibliography: | References4.: Life as the Evolution of Information; Introduction; The Entropy Illusion; The Lady's Not for Turning-Why Evolution Never Goes Backwards; Hypermutation; Redundancy and Degeneracy: The Lifeblood of Evolution; The Genetic Code; Hox Genes; Gene Networks and Genetic Learning; Redundancy, Entropy and the Major Transitions in Evolution; Epigenetics: Add a Dash of Lamarckian Unpredictability; Conclusions; References; 5.: Life Jim, But Not as We Know It; Introduction; A Recap; Using the Deep Biosphere as a Guide to Alien Life; Signs of Life; Life Under a Crimson Sun. Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9783319529110 3319529110 |