Survival Pathways for Living Bodies and Their Genomes

Abstract

It is obvious that living bodies are very vulnerable. They consist of naked, delicate, pliable cells that do not have significant levels of protection against environmental factors. In particular, low and high temperatures, lack of food and water, pressure drops, radiation, mechanical impacts, and the action of toxins can all be harmful and even lethal to them. Yet life on Earth emerged under just such geophysical conditions.