![First Life: Discovering the Connections between Stars, Cells, and How Life Began | [David Deamer]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/619Jk8+mDCL._SL175_.jpg "First Life: Discovering the Connections between Stars, Cells, and How Life Began | [David Deamer]")
First Life: Discovering the Connections between Stars, Cells, and How Life Began
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- Regular Price :$24.95Special Offer: Learn how to get this for $7.49 !
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Average Customer Rating
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LENGTH13 hrs and 57 mins
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RELEASE DATE12-03-12
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AUDIO FORMATS
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Program TypeAudiobook
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Publisher's Summary
This pathbreaking book explores how life can begin, taking us from cosmic clouds of stardust, to volcanoes on Earth, to the modern chemistry laboratory. Seeking to understand life's connection to the stars, David Deamer introduces astrobiology, a new scientific discipline that studies the origin and evolution of life on Earth and relates it to the birth and death of stars, planet formation, interfaces between minerals, water, and atmosphere, and the physics and chemistry of carbon compounds.
Deamer argues that life began as systems of molecules that assembled into membrane-bound packages. These in turn provided an essential compartment in which more complex molecules assumed new functions required for the origin of life and the beginning of evolution. Deamer takes us from the vivid and unpromising chaos of the Earth four billion years ago up to the present and his own laboratory, where he contemplates the prospects for generating synthetic life.
Engaging and accessible, First Life describes the scientific story of astrobiology while presenting a fascinating hypothesis to explain the origin of life.
The book is published by University of California Press.
©2011 David Deamer (P)2012 Redwood Audiobooks
What the Critics Say
"This intriguing scholarly text offers many fascinating insights into origin-of-life research.... Highly recommended." (Choice)
"An authoritative voice weighs in on a sprawling debate that's been raging in the scientific community for many decades, and lays out a succinct and persuasive hypothesis for the origin of life on Earth. Deamer also provides a unique window into the evolution of astrobiology, a field in which he's viewed as both a forefather and an innovator." (Scientist)
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Gary Las Cruces, NM, United States 03-30-13 Member Since 2001I love learning about the universe and our place in it by listening to Audible.
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"Not for the faint of heart"
The book is more of a text book than a popular science book. The author is very good at stating what he's going to tell you, than tells you, and than summarize what he just told you.
I understand chemistry even less than I understand bio-chemistry and the book uses both extensively. He'll explain the terms and often I wouldn't understand any of the technical words for whole pages (minutes) at a time, but I would always understand what his point was.
The book is not for the faint of heart and is by far the most difficult book I have ever listen to because of its complexity. After having listen to it, I really have an understanding of how the universe could have become self aware.
The reader does an excellent job of reading the book in a dry manner as if it were a text book. I have a feeling that the book could be used in a graduate course on the origins of life in a bio-chem or biology graduate course.
The book is definitely worth risking a credit on, but beware it is a difficult listen.3 of 3 people found this review helpful