Modernidade e pós-modernidade: em busca do sentido da vida atual

This paper refl ects on a set of themes that are part of the contemporary agenda. The article contrasts modernity and post-modernity to discuss the “new sociology” which is dedicated to interpret the world and the way of life derived from the digital revolution and an intense capitalist globalization. Accepting some of the metaphors and concepts developed by this sociology, the paper argues that the world suggests much more than the image of a “radicalized modernity”, in which the dynamics of the past collide and combine with dynamics that are coming into existence, forming a plural, uneven, and surprisingly fast system.

From cytoplasm to environment: The inorganic ingredients for the origin of life

Early in its history, Earth's surface developed from an uninhabitable magma ocean to a place where life could emerge. The first organisms, lacking ion transporters, fixed the composition of their cradle environment in their intracellular fluid. Later, though life adapted and spread, it preserved some qualities of its initial environment within. Modern prokaryotes could thus provide insights into the conditions of early Earth and the requirements for the emergence of life. In this work, we constrain Earth's life-forming environment through detailed analysis of prokaryotic intracellular fluid. Rigorous assessment of the constraints placed on the early Earth environment by intracellular liquid will provide insight into the conditions of abiogenesis, with implications not only for our understanding of early Earth but also the formation of life elsewhere in the Universe. Copyright © 2013, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 2013.