{{short description|American scientist and academic}} {{Infobox scientist |name = Robert Shapiro |image = |image_size = |caption = Robert Shapiro |birth_date = {{Birth date|1935|11|28}} |birth_place = [[New York City]], [[United States]] |residence = |death_date = {{death date and age|2011|6|15|1935|11|28}}<ref name="obit" /> |death_place = |field = [[Chemistry]] |work_institution = [[University of Cambridge]], [[New York University]] |alma_mater = [[City College of New York]] (BS), [[Harvard University]] (PhD) |doctoral_advisor = [[Robert B. Woodward]] |doctoral_students = |known_for = Work on [[origin of life]] |prizes = [[Trotter Prize (Texas A&M)|Trotter Prize (2004)]] with [[Paul Davies]]<ref name="obit" /> |religion = |footnotes = }}
{{distinguish|text=chemist [[Robert H. Shapiro]] who discovered the [[Shapiro reaction]]}}
'''Robert Shapiro''' (28 November 1935 – 15 June 2011<ref name="obit">{{cite web|title=Bob Shapiro Passes Away at Age 75|url=http://chemistry.fas.nyu.edu/object/chem.news.bobshapiropassesaway|publisher=New York University|accessdate=15 August 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928070906/http://chemistry.fas.nyu.edu/object/chem.news.bobshapiropassesaway|archivedate=28 September 2011}}</ref>) was professor emeritus of chemistry at [[New York University]]. He is best known for his work on the [[origin of life]], having written two books on the topic: ''Origins, a Skeptic’s Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth'' (1986) and ''Planetary Dreams'' (1999). He opposed the [[RNA world hypothesis]], and held that the spontaneous emergence of a molecule as complicated as [[RNA]] is highly unlikely. Instead, he proposed that life arose from some self-sustaining and compartmentalized reaction of simple molecules: "metabolism first" instead of "RNA first". This reaction would have to be able to reproduce and evolve, eventually leading to RNA. He claimed that in this view life is a normal consequence of the laws of nature and potentially quite common in the universe.<ref>Alvin Powell, [http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/10/nyu-chemist-robert-shapiro-decries-rna-first-possibility/ NYU chemist Robert Shapiro decries RNA-first possibility], ''Harvard University Gazette'', 23 October 2008</ref>
==Works== *''Life Beyond Earth: The Intelligent Earthling's Guide to Extraterrestrial Life'' (with [[Gerald Feinberg]]) Morrow, 1980. {{ISBN|0-688-08642-X}}. *''Origins: A Skeptic's Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth'' Summit Books (January 1986) {{ISBN|0-671-45939-2}}. *''Planetary Dreams: The Quest to Discover Life Beyond Earth'' Wiley; 1 edition (1999) {{ISBN|0471407356}}.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://chemistry.fas.nyu.edu/object/robertshapiro.html Faculty page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090206220446/http://chemistry.fas.nyu.edu/object/robertshapiro.html |date=2009-02-06 }} at [[New York University]] * [http://www.robertshapiro.org/index.htm Page about his books]
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Shapiro, Robert}} [[Category:1935 births]] [[Category:2011 deaths]] [[Category:American chemists]] [[Category:New York University faculty]] [[Category:Harvard University alumni]] [[Category:City College of New York alumni]]
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