The origins of life : a subject collection from Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology / edited by David Deamer, Jack W. Szostak.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Historical development of origins research / Antonio Lazcano -- Cosmic carbon chemistry : from the interstellar medium to the early earth / Pascale Ehrenfreund and Jan Cami -- The Hadean-Archaean environment / Norman H. Sleep -- Earth's earliest atmospheres / Kevin Zahnle, Laura Schaefer, and Bruce Fegley -- Planetary organic chemistry and the origins of biomolecules / Steven A. Benner ... [et al.] -- The organic composition of carbonaceous meteorites : the evolutionary story ahead of biochemistry / Sandra Pizzarello and Everett Shock -- Ribonucleotides / John D. Sutherland -- The origin of biological homochirality / Donna G. Blackmond -- Bioenergetics and life's origins / David Deamer and Arthur L. Weber -- Mineral surfaces, geochemical complexities, and the origins of life / Robert M. Hazen and Dimitri A. Sverjensky -- From self-assembled vesicles to protocells / Irene A. Chen and Peter Walde -- Membrane transport in primitive cells / Sheref S. Mansy -- Primitive genetic polymers / Aaron E. Engelhart and Nicholas V. Hud -- Closing the circle : replicating RNA with RNA / Leslie K.L. Cheng and Peter J. Unrau -- The origins of cellular life / Jason P. Schrum, Ting F. Zhu, and Jack W. Szostak -- Origin and evolution of the ribosome / George E. Fox -- Deep phylogeny - how a tree can help characterize early life on earth / Eric A. Gaucher, James T. Kratzer, and Ryan N. Randall -- Constructing partial models of cells / Norikazu Ichihashi ... [et al.] -- An origin of life on Mars / Christopher P. McKay.