Habitability of the Universe before Earth

Richard Gordon is a Theoretical Biologist at the Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory (Panacea, FL), as well as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Wayne State University (Detroit, MI). Dr. Gordon was Professor at the University of Manitoba until his retirement in 2011. He holds an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and a PhD in Chemical Physics from the University of Oregon under Terrell Hill. He has edited 16 academic books and special issues plus two monographs. He was summoned twice to the Canadian Parliament to testify as an expert scientific witness on the grant system. Dr. Gordon has published over 200 peer reviewed articles in mathematics, engineering, physics and chemistry. He wrote the first paper on diatom nanotechnology, founding that field. He started the field of adaptive image processing and published on algal biofuels, computed tomography, AIDS prevention, neural tube defects, embryo physics, and research and social ethics. His interest in astrobiology dates back to work on the Orgueil meteorite as an undergraduate in Edward Anders' lab at the University of Chicago. The full list of publications by Richard Gordon is available at http://tinyurl.com/DickGordon. He may be reached at DickGordonCan@gmail.com.Dr. Richard GordonRetired from the University of ManitobaTheoretical Biologist. Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory & AquariumAdjunct Professor, C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth & Development Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Wayne State University Alexei Sharov started his career as an entomologist and ecologist, but soon realized that he had to answer more fundamental questions: what is life, how it evolves, learns, and functions. Thus he got involved in the Research Group on Theoretical Biology at Moscow State University, and started publishing theoretical papers. Later he organized a seminar and two conferences on Biosemiotics, which is a synthesis of biology and semiotics, a theory on signs and meanings. Since 2002, he has worked in molecular biology and bioinformatics, and this new field helped him to advance further in the area of theoretical biology and biosemiotics. He has published over 200 papers and edited a special issue.

• Preface: Life as a Cosmic PhenomenonPart I: Physical and Chemical Constraints1. Gravity and life 2. Radiation as a constraint for life in the universe3. The when and where of water in the history of the universe4. The cosmic evolution of biochemistry5. Astrophysical and cosmological constraints on life6. Primitive carbon: Before Earth and much before any life on itPart II: Predicting Habitability7. The habitability of our evolving galaxy8. N-body simulations and galactic habitability9. Occupied and empty regions of the space of extremophile parameters10. The emergence of structured, living and conscious matter in the evolution of the universe: A theory of structural evolution and interaction of matterPart III: Life in the Cosmic Scale11. Life before Earth12. Earth before life13. The time-dependent Drake equation14. Are we the first? 10 billion years of evolution before Earth15. Life before its origin on Earth: Implications of a late emergence of terrestrial life Part IV: System Properties of Life16. Symbiosis: Why was the transition from microbial prokaryotes to eukaryotic organisms a cosmic gigayear event?17. Coenzyme world model of the origin of life18. Emergence of polygonal shapes in oil droplets and living cells: The potential role of tensegrity in the origin of life19. Why on theoretical grounds it may be likely that ‘life’ exists throughout the universe