Echoes of life

What Fossil Molecules Reveal about Earth History

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Last edited by Open Library Bot
April 28, 2010 | History

Echoes of life

What Fossil Molecules Reveal about Earth History

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In 1936 a German chemist identified certain organic molecules in ancient rocks and oils as the fossil remains of chlorophyll, presumably from plants that had lived millions of years in the past. Many years later this insight was revisited and the term
“biomarker” coined to describe fossil molecules whose molecular structures could reveal the presence of otherwise elusive organisms and processes—and then, the hunt was on. Echoes of Life is the story of those molecules and how they illuminate the history of the earth and its life. It is also the story of how a few maverick organic chemists and geologists defied the dictates of their disciplines and, at a time when the natural sciences were fragmenting into ever-more-specialized sub-disciplines,
reunited chemistry, biology and geology in a common endeavor.

Publish Date
Language
English
Pages
355

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Echoes of life
Echoes of life: What Fossil Molecules Reveal about Earth History
2009, Oxford University Press
in English

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Book Details


Published in

New York

First Sentence

"Lodged in the earth’s outermost layer, ephemeral scratch on a mineral skin, life plays cards with a handful of elements—builds molecular extravaganzas of carbon and hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, or precious phosphorus, and forms the pieces to the parts that, assembled, define it. When the game is over, the cards reshu! ed, the parts dismantled—membranes ruptured, shells dissolved, bones ground to dust—a few of those organic molecules remain in the sediments and rocks, bearing witness to the distant moments of their creation."

Table of Contents

1. Molecular informants: a changing perspective of organic chemistry
2. Looking to the Rocks: Molecular Clues to the Origin of Life
3. From the moon to mars: the search for extraterrestrial life
4. Black gold: an alchemist's guide to petroleum
5. Deep sea mud: biomarker clues to climate history
6. More molecules, More Mud and the Isotopic Dimension: Ancient Environments Revealed
7. Microbiologists (finally) climb on board
8. Weird Molecules, Inconceivable Microbes, and Unlikely Proxies: Marine Ecology Revised
9. Molecular paleontology and biochemical evolution
10. Early life revisited
11. Thinking Molecularly, Anything Goes: From Mummies to Oil Spills, Doubts to New Directions
Appendix: Biomarkers at a Glance
Glossary
Figure List
Selected Bibliography
Index
A Biomarker-centric Tree of Life

Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
572/.33
Library of Congress
QE516.5 .E35

The Physical Object

Pagination
p. cm.
Number of pages
355

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL19968776M
Internet Archive
echoeslifewhatfo00gain_856
ISBN 13
9780195176193
LCCN
2008019905
Library Thing
7991204
Goodreads
2681507

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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON
April 28, 2010 Edited by Open Library Bot Linked existing covers to the work.
March 14, 2010 Edited by WorkBot update details
December 10, 2009 Created by WorkBot add works page