The origin of life entails a continuum from simple prebiotic chemistry to cells with genes and
molecular machines. Using life as a guide to this continuum, we consider how selection …

Conspectus Famously found written on the blackboard of physicist Richard Feynman after
his death was the phrase,“What I cannot create, I do not understand.” From this perspective …

The kinetic resolution of racemic amino acids mediated by dipeptides and pyridoxal
provides a prebiotically plausible route to enantioenriched proteinogenic amino acids. The …

Serpentinization in hydrothermal vents is central to some autotrophic theories for the origin
of life because it generates compartments, reductants, catalysts and gradients. During the …

Rocky planets may acquire a primordial atmosphere by the outgassing of volatiles from their
magma ocean. The distribution of O between H2O, CO, and CO2 in chemical equilibrium …

Numerous reactions within metabolic pathways have been reported to occur
nonenzymatically, supporting the hypothesis that life arose upon a primitive nonenzymatic …

This book surveys the models for the origin of life and presents a new model starting with
shaped droplets and ending with life as polygonal Archaea; it collects the most published …

Elucidating compositions of the first cell membranes requires experiments with molecules
and chemical conditions representative of early Earth. The molecules used are described as …

The concept of an autocatalytic network of reactions that can form and persist, starting from
just an available food source, has been formalized by the notion of a reflexively autocatalytic …

During the decarboxylation of oxaloacetic acid (OAA), an α-keto acid that participates in the
central metabolic pathways of all organisms, its fourth carbon is released in the form of CO 2 …