Guidebook for Systems Applications in Astrobiology

Vera M. Kolb obtained degrees in chemical engineering and organic chemistry from Belgrade University, Serbia, and earned her PhD in organic chemistry from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois, United States. Following a 30-year career, she is Professor Emerita of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Kenosha, Wisconsin. During her first sabbatical leave with the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) in Astrobiology, she conducted research with Dr. Leslie Orgel at the Salk Institute and Prof. Stanley Miller at UC San Diego. Her second sabbatical was with Prof. Joseph Lambert at Northwestern University, where she studied sugar silicates and their potential astrobiological relevance. She is credited for authoring over 160 publications, in the fields of organic and medicinal chemistry, green chemistry, and astrobiology, including several books. Recently, she authored Green Organic Chemistry and Its Interdisciplinary Applications (CRC 2016). In the astrobiology field, she edited Astrobiology: An Evolutionary Approach (CRC 2015) and Handbook of Astrobiology (CRC 2019). She co-authored (with Benton C. Clark) Astrobiology for a General Reader: A Questions and Answers Approach (CSP 2020), and Systems Approach to Astrobiology (CRC 2023).

• Chapter 1: Astrobiology: An overview. Chapter 2: A primer on the systems approach. Chapter 3: Systems approach to prebiotic chemistry which led to life. Chapter 4: Assembly of membranous compartments: An essential step in the emergence and function of protocells. Chapter 5: Locating the cradle of life: The hydrothermal impact crater lakes on young Earth and Mars. Chapter 6: Systems Geochemistry in Astrobiological Context. Chapter 7: Asymmetric autocatalysis and the origins of homochirality. Chapter 8: Abiotic-to-biotic transition of chemical systems starting with thermodynamic inversion. Chapter 9: Systems biology. Chapter 10: Systems approach to microbiology. Chapter 11: The role of astrobiology in systems thinking education. Chapter 12: Knowledge gaps in astrobiology: Can systems approach help elucidate them? Chapter 13: Life’s emergence by protocellular mutually catalytic networks of small molecules. Chapter 14: Prototyping the colonizer cell: Combining biology and systems engineering.