Evolution
Chapters
« previous | page 2 of 2 pagesThe Invariance Concept
Christian Schwabe
Tucked away, if it were possible, within the hollow of the tip of a dart gun needle aimed at man or beast one could make a memorable discovery. Just a moment after skin penetration the overwhelming impression would be ‘sameness’. A human, a pachyderm, ...
The Minimal Cell
Markus Pech and Knud H. Nierhaus
In this chapter we consider the beginning of life under the aspect of common and minimal principles governing the existence of a cell, in particular we will take into account the question of “the minimal gene set” that is necessary for life. All living organisms are made of cells. A single cell is a...
The Nature of the Last Common Ancestor
Luis Delaye, Arturo Becerra, and Antonio Lazcano
Until the late 1970’s cellular evolution was assumed to be a continuous, unbroken chain of progressive transformations that begun with the emergence of life itself and contin ued until the endosymbiotic origin of eukaryotes marked the major biological discontinuity. This scheme was challenged whe...
The Origin of Complexity
Christian Schwabe
Clearly, molecular complexity was a precondition for biogenesis. Contiguous molecular structures are monkey bars for electrons that provide the stream of energy required to extend that complexity to a level not observed in the abiotic world and to constantly ren...
The Origins of Species
Christian Schwabe
There was never a time on earth when only one kind, one species, existed. At least there is no evidence to that effect and a plausible extension of that simple thought would lead to the conclusion that the development of species was parallel rather than sequenti...
The Primitive Earth
James F. Kasting
Understanding how life may have originated necessarily involves understanding the environment of the early Earth. This statement is true even if life originated somewhere else and was transported to Earth—an idea referred to as “panspermia”. Even in this, to some extreme, version of life’s origin, ...
The Scope of Selection
Michael Yarus and Rob Knight
We have estimated the maximal size for an RNA motif recoverable from selection-amplification for new RNA activities, under conditions that span those in present laboratory use. The number of sequence pieces from which an active site is folded (the modularity) is a crucial variable. Routi...
Thoughts on Multi-Cellularity: How Nature got Around Darwin
Christian Schwabe
Reproductive success is the ultimate criterion for survival in the Darwinian paradigm, and since micro-organisms are undisputed champions of reproduction the countless creatures that condensed in the shallow Cambrian waters simply drained the old model of credib...
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