The spark of life

"Christopher Wills and Jeffrey Bada take us on a mind-expanding journey - back in time, across the globe, and through the solar system in search of extraterrestrial life. From Swedish mine shafts to the Stygian blackness of the deep ocean, the intellectual story they trace is a fascinating one, rooted in recent advances in chemistry, molecular biology, and planetary science.". "The road to understanding has not been a smooth one, however, and consensus among scientists is still difficult to achieve. Untangling a century of contentious debate, Wills and Bada explore contemporary theories of the source of life - from asteroids and Martian meteorites to hot rocks and hydrothermal vents. They then present their own elegant and compelling scenario: Life arose not in the subterranean depths, as many have recently suggested, but on Earth's tumultuous surface, where a primitive form of natural selection spawned the first genetic material, perhaps in the form of a proto-virus."--BOOK JACKET.