Gross, M. (1996). Life on the edge

Gross, M. (1996). Life on the edge. Plenum Press, New York.

Per buscar vida fora del nostre planeta cal primer de tot saber que buscar i on buscar. I per a fer tot això cal tenir clar que entenem per vida i acotar en quines condicions ambientals aquesta pot desenvolupar-se. Aquest llibre ens acosta a formes de vides que viuen en condicions extremes, en indrets on no fa massa temps, es creia impossible que aquest pogués trobar-se: Pyrolobus fumarii pot créixer a temperatures que van dels 90 als 113ºC. Hi ha líquens que han sobreviscut a temperatures properes al zero absolut (-273,15ºC). S’han trobat bacteris a 10.500 metres de fondària a unes pressions de 1,1 kilobar. A 1.500 metres de fondària, dins de basalt, s’han localitzat bacteris metanogènics. Hi ha que són resistents a altes dosis de raigs gamma. Altres que viuen a pH de 0.5, altres a pH fins 10. I així molts exemples més. Estudiar aquests organismes i entendre com poden sobreviure en llocs tant inhòspits ens pot ajudar a la recerca de vida fora de la Terra.

Índex

  1. Introduction: Life and its limits.
    1. Things one needs for a living
    2. What do we mean by “nomal” after all?
    3. The limits of life on Earth
    4. Endnotes
  2. Extreme environments and their inhabitants
    1. Profile: Thomas Brock and the discovery of the hyperthermophiles
    2. Some like it hot: life around geysers and volcanoes
    3. Stay cool: life at subzero temperatures
    4. Sidelines: Of polar bears and penguins-vertebrate life at the poles
    5. Living under pressure: the deep sea
    6. Sidelines: On diving
    7. A light in the dark: luminescent creatures of deep sea
    8. Travel to the center of the Earth: The deep subsurface as a biotope
    9. Extra dry: survival in the desert
    10. Saturated with salt: The (allegedly) dead sea as a biotope
    11. Acid heads and basic needs: life at extreme pH
    12. Nature’s eco-brigade: Oil-degrading bacteria
    13. Endnotes
  3. The cell’s survival kit
    1. The heat shock response
    2. Sidelines: How to hunt for stress proteins
    3. Heat shock proteins acting as molecular chaperones
    4. Antifreeze and cold shock proteins
    5. Focus: Structure and function of the heat shock protein GroEL
    6. Adaptations by changes of amino acid sequences
    7. Chemical adaptations: small molecules
    8. Some new tricks from the cell’s repair workshop
    9. Focus: The growing family of photolyase enzymes
    10. Sidelines: How hot love helps Archaebacteria to survive
    11. Waiting for better times: Sporulation as a survival strategy
    12. Focus: The case of the missing alanine- a biochemical detective story
    13. Two’s company: symbiosis help species to spread in hostile environments
    14. Endnotes
  4. Relevance of extremes for biotechnology and medicine
    1. An extremely short history of biotechnology
    2. Hyperthermophilic enzymes
    3. Profile: Kary Mullis and the polymerase chain reaction
    4. Preservation by freezing and freeze-drying
    5. Profile: Pierre Douzou and the invention of cryoenzymology
    6. High-pressure biotechnology
    7. Bacteriorhodopsin as an optoelectronic component
    8. Extremophiles and disease: acid-resistant bacteria in the stomach
    9. Medical applications of heat shock proteins
    10. Endnotes
  5. Extremists and tree of life
    1. The origin of life- the primeval Earth as an extreme habitat
    2. From building blocks to chain molecules
    3. Profile: Stanley Miller and the primordial soup
    4. Ribozymes- relics of lost word?
    5. Archaebacteria: a new, very old domain of life
    6. Focus: ribozymes with new activities and new structures
    7. Methanococcus jannaschii:  Decoding an Archaebacterium
    8. Do we all come out the heat?
    9. Focus: Inteins everywhere- a surprising by-product of the Methanococcus sequencing
    10. Searching for Gaia: Life on Earth as a Hyperorganism
    11. Profile: James Lovelock- a heretic?
    12. Endnotes
  6. Life beyond Earth
    1. How to detect life on a planet
    2. Profile: Carl Sagan and the quest for life in the universe
    3. Is there life on Mars?
    4. Sideline: First results of Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor
    5. Strange worlds: The moons of the big gas planets
    6. Are there any planets orbiting other stars?
    7. The spore’s guide to the galaxy
    8. Endnote
  7. Glossary
  8. Further reading and internet links

Deixa un comentari