Perspectives in Astrobiology
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Author(s): R. Hoover, A. Rozanov and R. Paepe
Publisher: IOS Press
ISBN: 1586035126
Format: hardback
217pp
Price: £73.00, $126.00, 105
Review Date: 30 August 2005
Review: Astrobiology is a multi-disciplinary field devoted to the investigation of the origin; physical, chemical and environmental limitations; and the distributing in space and time of life on Earth and in the Cosmos. It aims to answer the question: ‘Is life restricted to planet Earth, or is it a cosmic imperative?’. This volume includes papers on a wide variety of topics. They range from considerations of relict microbial communities of extreme environments (e.g. hydrotherms, hypersaline lagoons, and soda lakes and the subglacial Antarctic ice sheet) to complex organic molecules, such as sugars under prebiotic conditions, biominerals and abiotic framboidal microstructures in Earth rocks, the processes of mineralization and fossilization of cyanobacteria, and biomarkers and micro-fossils detected in carbonaceous meteorites.