Echoes of life
What Fossil Molecules Reveal about Earth History
by Susan M. Gaines
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.
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Echoes of life: What Fossil Molecules Reveal about Earth History
2009, Oxford University Press
in English
0195176197 9780195176193
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Book Details
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, de fine 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."
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Includes bibliographical references and index.
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| April 28, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Linked existing covers to the work. |
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