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Full Description
Volume 6, entitled Metal Ions and the Route to Life, of the series Metal Ions in Life Sciences, advocates for the recognition of metal ions' and metal-bearing minerals' prime importance in the transition from inanimate matter to first life on our planet. Unlike the relatively unreactive organic molecules, the traditional protagonists of orthodox origin-of-life hypotheses, metals and minerals are natural catalysts, abundantly present in the majority of settings on the early Earth considered as conducive to bringing forth life. In these palaeogeochemical settings, they may have catalyzed the anabolic conversions of inorganic precursor molecules into organics and may have converted redox disequilibria between environmental reductants and oxidants into the ordering, i.e. the lowering of entropy, of first living entities. Far-fetched? Yet, this is precisely what metal ions do in life today! An unlikely coalition of biology (biochemistry and bioenergetics) and physics (thermodynamics and condensed matter physics) is growingly questioning the plausibility of the orthodox hypotheses while putting metal ions and minerals centre-stage in their scenarios. In this volume, 29 internationally renowned experts from fields as diverse as microbiology, biochemistry, astrobiology, electrochemistry, ecology, mineralogy, geology and geochemistry shine light from their individual angles on this topic, bringing home metal ions' primordial importance to extant life, presenting minerals with tantalizing reactivities appearing as look-alikes of life's processes and sketching out plausible, metal-ion-based scenarios for life's emergence on planet Earth. Metal Ions and the Route to Life provides the empirical groundwork to interested researchers and the general public for revisiting their preconceived ideas about the origin of life and for appreciating the absolute indispensability of metal ions in life - now just as at its beginnings!
Contents
1. THE ROLE OF METAL IONS IN THE EMERGENCE OF LIFE; A CALL FOR A CHANGE
IN PARADIGM
2. METAL ION CATALYSIS IN ABIOTIC AND BIOTIC PHASES OF THE DEVELOPMENT
OF LIVING ORGANISMS
3. METALS AND LIFE; AND INTRODUCTION
4. TRACE METALS AS REDOX COFACTORS AND THEIR ROLE IN CONTROLLING
MICROBIAL DIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION
5. ELECTRON TRANSFER SYMPHONY: UNVEILING THE ENIGMATIC ROLE OF
INORGANIC IRON OXIDE AND SULFIDE NANOPARTICLES AS INORGANIC ENZYMES IN EARLY EARTH ENVIRONMENTS
6. APPLICATION OF ELECTRON PARAMAGNETIC RESONANCE SPECTROSCOPY FOR
STUDIES OF PREBIOTIC METALS AND COMPLEXES
7. UNIQUE SEMICONDUCTING PROPERTIES OF LAYERED Mn AND Fe OXIDE MINERALS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON BIOGEOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
8. Fe-OXYHYDROXIDE "GREEN RUST" (PROTO)METABOLIZED CO2 AND CH4 PRIOR TO
LIFE'S EMERGENCE
9. FOUGERITE: FREE ENERGY CONVERTER FOR LIFE'S CONCEPTION
