Susan M. Gaines, Geoffrey Eglinton, Jurgen Rullkotter

Echoes of Life (eBook, ePUB)

What Fossil Molecules Reveal about Earth History

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

In 1936 a German chemist identified certain organic molecules that he had extracted from ancient rocks and oils as the fossil remains of chlorophyll--presumably from plants that had lived and died millions of years in the past. It was another twenty-five years before this insight was developed and the term "biomarker" coined to describe fossil molecules whose molecular structures could reveal the presence of otherwise elusive organisms and processes. Echoes of Life is the story of these molecules and how they are illuminating the history of the earth and its life. It is also the story of how a few maverick organic chemists and geologists defied the dictates of their disciplines and--at a time when the natural sciences were fragmenting into ever-more-specialized sub-disciplines--reunited chemistry, biology and geology in a common endeavor. The rare combination of rigorous science and literary style--woven into a historic narrative that moves naturally from the simple to the complex--make Echoes of Life a book to be read for pleasure and contemplation, as well as education.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Oxford University Press
• Erscheinungstermin: 5. November 2008
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780199884186
• Artikelnr.: 38128563

Autorenporträt

Susan Gaines was trained as a chemist and oceanographer, but abandoned the laboratory to pursue a writer's vocation. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous literary anthologies and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and she is the author of the novel Carbon Dreams. Geoffrey Eglinton is Professor Emeritus at Bristol University, Adjunct Scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Adjunct Professor at Dartmouth College. Jürgen Rullkötter is a professor of organic geochemistry at the Institute of Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), University of Oldenburg, Germany. Books by the same authors: Carbon Dreams a Susan M. Gaines The Monterey Formation - From Rocks to Molecules a Caroline M. Isaacs and Jürgen Rullkötter, Eds.