Notes and quotations from "Death by Black Hole - And Other Cosmic Quandaries" by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Among the most interesting subjects in this book are the origin and extent of life in the universe. Organic chemistry turns out to be not at all uncommon in our solar system and the universe, too.
"Eventually, in what must surely be countless billions of places in the universe, complex molecules assemble themselves into some kind of life."
"Notables on the short list of complex molecules include adenine{one of the nucleotides, or "bases," that make up DNA}, glycine{a protein precusor}, and glycoaldehyde{a carbohydrate}. Such ingredients, and others of their caliber, are essential for life as we know it and are decidely not unique to Earth."
The new sciences of astrochemistry and astrobiology were virtually unknown a few decades ago.
"Biologists once presumed that life began in "some warm little pond," to quote Darwin; in recent years, though, the weight of evidence has tilted in favor of the view that extremophiles were the earliest earthly life-forms."
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