The origin of life is still one of humankind's great mysteries. At the transition between
nonliving and living matter, protocells, initially featureless aggregates of abiotic matter, gain …

A ubiquitous feature of all living systems is their ability to sustain a biochemistry in which all
reactions are coordinated by catalysts, and all reactants (along with the catalysts) are either …

In the hard sciences, which can often feel out of grasp for many lay readers, there are" great
thinkers" who go far beyond the equations, formulas, and research. Minds such as Stephen …

The universal core of metabolism could have emerged from thermodynamically favoured
prebiotic pathways at the origin of life. Starting with H2 and CO2, the synthesis of amino …

The bottom‐up construction of synthetic cells with user‐defined chemical organization holds
considerable promise in the creation of bioinspired materials. Complex emulsions, droplet …

This year we celebrated Stuart Kauffman's 80th birthday. Kauffman has contributed many
original ideas to science. One of them is that of autocatalytic sets in the context of the origin …

The evolution of life in our biosphere has been marked by several major innovations. Such
major complexity shifts include the origin of cells, genetic codes or multicellularity to the …

We review lessons learned about evolutionary transitions from a bottom-up construction of
minimal life. We use a particular systemic protocell design process as a starting point for …

It took quite a long time to complete this book. More than 20 years had elapsed since I wrote
my last volume as an author, not just as an editor. And I felt it important to find again the …

Autocatalytic sets are self-sustaining and collectively catalytic chemical reaction networks
which are believed to have played an important role in the origin of life. Simulation studies …