Title: Vital dust
First published: 1995
Description: This book by Nobel prize-winning biochemist Christian de Duve surveys the molecular evidence and biochemical processes that testify to the origins of life and our universal descent from a last universal common ancestor.  The book is divided into seven parts (I-VII) with at least two or more chapters in each.  Part I, for example, which is entitled "The Age of Chemistry," contains four chapters - The Search for Origins; The First Catalysts of Life (including a treatment of thioesters); The Fuel for Emerging Life; and The Advent of RNA.   --  While Part II is entitled "The Age of Information," etc.  -  A sampling from the preface:  "...our knowledge of present-day metabolism yields insights into life's beginnings"  -   "the human version of cytochrome c differs from that of a rhesus monkey by a single amino acid and from those of the dog, rattlesnake, bullfrog, tuna fish, silkworm, wheat, and yeast by 11, 14, 18, 21, 31, 43, and 45 amino acids, respectively"
Subjects: Origin, Life, Evolution (Biology), Life (Biology), Chemical Evolution, Évolution (biologie), Biological Evolution, Origin of Life, Biogenese, Evolution, Evolutie, Vie (biologie), Origines
LC classification: QH325 .D42 1995