The Nature of Life and Its Potential to Survive

This book looks at the persistence of life and how difficult it would be to annihilate life, especially a species as successful as humanity. The idea that life in general is fragile is challenged by the hardiness of microbes, which shows that astrobiology on exoplanets and other satellites must be r...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Stevenson, David S.
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 2017, 2017
Edition:1st ed. 2017
Series:Astronomers' Universe
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: Springer eBooks 2005- - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
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245 0 0 |a The Nature of Life and Its Potential to Survive  |h Elektronische Ressource  |c by David S. Stevenson 
250 |a 1st ed. 2017 
260 |a Cham  |b Springer International Publishing  |c 2017, 2017 
300 |a XV, 456 p. 70 illus., 69 illus. in color  |b online resource 
505 0 |a Preface -- Chapter 1 – What is Life? -- Chapter 2 – Life’s Grand Themes -- Chapter 3 – The Origin of Life on Earth -- Chapter 4 – Life as the Evolution of Information -- Chapter 5 – Life Jim, But Not as We Know It -- Chapter 6 - Extinction -- Chapter 7- Agents of Mass Destruction -- Chapter 8 - Ultimately, Can Life Survive? -- Chapter 9 - A Thesis on Life, the Universe and Almost Everything Else -- Glossary -- Index 
653 |a Astrobiology 
653 |a Planetology 
653 |a Planetology 
653 |a Astrobiology 
653 |a Evolutionary Biology 
653 |a Popular Science in Astronomy 
653 |a Evolutionary biology 
653 |a Astronomy 
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989 |b Springer  |a Springer eBooks 2005- 
490 0 |a Astronomers' Universe 
856 4 0 |u https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52911-0?nosfx=y  |x Verlag  |3 Volltext 
082 0 |a 520 
520 |a This book looks at the persistence of life and how difficult it would be to annihilate life, especially a species as successful as humanity. The idea that life in general is fragile is challenged by the hardiness of microbes, which shows that astrobiology on exoplanets and other satellites must be robust and plentiful. Microbes have adapted to virtually every niche on the planet, from the deep, hot biosphere, to the frigid heights of the upper troposphere. Life, it seems, is almost indestructible. The chapters in this work examine the various scenarios that might lead to the extermination of life, and why they will almost always fail. Life's highly adaptive nature ensures that it will cling on no matter how difficult the circumstances. Scientists are increasingly probing and questioning life's true limits in, on and above the Earth, and how these limits could be pushed elsewhere in the universe. This investigation puts life in its true astronomical context, with the reader taken on a journey to illustrate life's potential and perseverance.