Gabriel Fernando Cao

The Vital Matrix: How Geochemistry Forged Life on Earth (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

The Vital Matrix: How Geochemistry Forged Life on Earth was conceived with the primary aim of challenging and restructuring the conventional narrative concerning the origin of life. It proposes an integrative synthesis that brings together diverse scientific disciplines under a new conceptual paradigm. Rather than merely presenting a catalogue of facts, the book offers a coherent framework for understanding life not as an improbable accident, but as a necessary and emergent property of planetary dynamics.

The work seeks to dismantle the notion of life as a 'fortunate accident' or 'miracle'-an idea popularised by the 'Chance and Necessity' school of thought. To this end, it reintroduces and elevates the concept of the biosphere as the fourth geosphere, on equal footing with the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.

A central argument of the book is that biochemistry did not arise ex nihilo but represents a direct and sophisticated continuation of organometallic chemistry occurring at the interface between lithosphere and hydrosphere.

Challenging the traditionally assumed causal order in the origin of life (genes → enzymes → metabolism), the book proposes a 'metabolism-first' model. According to this view, complexity arises from the bottom up, progressing through a series of stable intermediate phases.

The author contends that a self-sustaining metabolic network-specifically the reductive Krebs cycle (rTCA)-emerged first. Upon this scaffold, cofactors (organic tools such as vitamins) evolved, enabling biochemistry to "lift off the rocks" and gain increasing autonomy. Only within this chemically ordered context could the complex machinery of genetic translation be assembled.

Beyond offering a historical narrative, the book grounds its thesis in fundamental physical principles, particularly those governing phase transitions in far-from-equilibrium systems, thereby providing a thermodynamic foundation for the emergence of biochemical complexity.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Gabriel Fernando Cao
• Erscheinungstermin: 24. September 2025
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9798230938774
• Artikelnr.: 75520074

Autorenporträt

With more than two decades of experience in research and development, Dr. Gabriel Cao Di Marco has served as head of the Pathological Anatomy Division at the Dr. Pedro de Elizalde Children's General Hospital, part of the Ministry of Health of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, since 2015. Additionally, as a Medical Doctor from the University of Buenos Aires and a Senior Fellow at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), he has deployed his expertise in Medicine, Neuroscience, and Artificial Intelligence, expanding his knowledge to improve the quality of life of people with severe illnesses. His research skills and experience in Pathological Anatomy are at the core of his expertise, allowing him to innovate and contribute to the creation of professional conditions when providing medical services to citizens.