Cosmochemistry and the Origin of Life: Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute held at Maratea, Italy, June 1–12, 1981 (Nato Science Series C:, 101)

For the first time in human history, developments in many branches of science provide us with an opportunity of formula­ ting a comprehensive picture of the universe from its beginning to the present time. It is an awesome reflection that the carbon in our bodies is the very carbon which was generated during the birth of a star. There is a perceptible continuum through the billions of years which can be revealed by the study of chemistry. Studies in nucleosynthesis have related the origin of the elements to the life history of the stars. The chemical elements we find on earth, HYdrogen, Carbon, Oxygen, and Nitrogen, were created in astronomical processes that took place in the past, and these elements are not spread throughout space in the form of stars and galaxies. Radioastronomers have discovered a vast array of organic molecules in the interstellar medium which have a bearing on prebiological chemical processes. Many of the molecules found so far contain the four elements, C, N, 0, H. Except for the chem­ ically unreactive He, these four elements are the most abundant in the galaxy. The origin of polyatomic interstellar molecules is an unresolved problem. While we can explain the formation of some diatomic molecules as due to two atom collisions, it is much more difficult to form polyatomic molecules by collisions between diatomic molecules and atoms. There may be other produc­ tion mechanisms at work such as reactions taking place on the surface of interstellar dust grains. Front Matter....Pages i-viii Cosmochemistry and the Origin of Life....Pages 1-34 Synthesis of the Chemical Elements....Pages 35-69 The Largest Molecules in Space: Interstellar Dust....Pages 71-112 Comets, Interstellar Molecules, and the Origin of Life....Pages 113-142 Impact of Solar System Exploration on Theories of Chemical Evolution and the Origin of Life....Pages 143-174 The Chemical Composition and Climatology of the Earth’s Early Atmosphere....Pages 175-212 The Dating of the Earliest Sediments on Earth....Pages 213-233 Inorganic Chemistry of Earliest Sediments: Bioinorganic Chemical Aspects of the Origin and Evolution of Life....Pages 235-276 Biologically Mediated Isotope Fractionations: Biochemistry, Geochemical Significance and Preservation in the Earth’s Oldest Sediments....Pages 277-322 Organic Molecules as Chemical Fossils — The Molecular Fossil Record....Pages 323-359 Back Matter....Pages 361-386 Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute, Maratea, Italy, June 1-12, 1981