Life as We Know It

Front Cover
Joseph Seckbach
Springer Science & Business Media, Sep 21, 2006 - Science - 765 pages

Life As we Know It ["LAKI"] covers several aspects of Life, ranging from the prebiotic level, origin of life, evolution of prokaryotes to eukaryotes and finally to various affairs of human beings. Although it is hard to define Life, one can, however, characterize it and describe its features. Topics treated are categories of bacteria, algae and fungi, conscience, philosophy, theology, aesthetics, appearance of sport and life destiny, life after clinical death, and thoughts of the world to come ("Olam Haba").

The various chapters have been written so that they are accessible to all - from the avid lay reader to the specialist – and make available multidisciplinary sources of information about Life. This volume will interest open minded scholars, students at all levels of general sciences, natural and Life science, researchers of philosophy, theology, history of Life, astrobiology, and those who wish to widen their knowledge about "who are we in the universe".

The information presented here on the various phenomena of Life were all written by highly qualified authors including scientists, public leaders, a professional athelete and three Nobel Laureates.

 

Contents

PART
3
Chapman R L and Waters D A Fungal Lives Ross I K 37 53
102
PART
144
The Origin of the Eukaryotes Bell P J L Symbiotic Forms of Life Lee J J Symbiosis The Way of All Life Saffo M B
159
259
178
Numerical Analysis of Biocomplexity Deamer D and Evans J Hepatitis B Virus Conjectures on Human Interactions and Origin of Life
199
287
226
307
282
DEEPER ISSUES OF THE PHENOMENON OF LIFE
536
Afterlife in Moshe MaimondesГs thought Laras R G
566
Some Suggestions for Conceptual Harmonizing
577
A Matter of Definition or Theory?
588
And You Shall Choose Life Riskin S
602
A Definition of Life Integrating Platonism
609
Realities as SpeciesSpecific Interpretations of
623
Driving Prebiotic Evolution
642

325
326
341
338
The Distribution of Life in the Universe
373
TrigoRodríguez J M
397
Astronomical Constraints for Life on Terrestrial Planets Ehrenfreund
411
We Have Not Detected Extraterrestrial Life Or Have
446
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Shostak
460
An Alternative Method for the Scientific Search for Extraterrestrial
488
The Destiny of Life in the Universe
507
Human Life as a Social Phenomenon
657
Gadoth N Beauty in Nature GundeCimerman N and Zalar P 655 663
686
Musings of a Pro Athlete Funderburke L
703
PART
714
What Do We Call Life? A Brief Outlook on Life Seckbach J
737
Organism Index
745
Author Index
763
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases