We present a testable hypothesis related to an origin of life on land in which fluctuating
volcanic hot spring pools play a central role. The hypothesis is based on experimental …

Prokaryotic life has dominated most of the evolutionary history of our planet, evolving to
occupy virtually all available environmental niches. Extremophiles, especially those thriving …

Physical laws—such as the laws of motion, gravity, electromagnetism, and thermodynamics—
codify the general behavior of varied macroscopic natural systems across space and time …

How and where did life on Earth originate? To date, various environments have been
proposed as plausible sites for the origin of life. However, discussions have focused on a …

The second ExoMars mission will be launched in 2020 to target an ancient location
interpreted to have strong potential for past habitability and for preserving physical and …

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 …

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 …

In this Focus Review, we put the spotlight on very recent insights into the fascinating world of
wet chemistry in the realm offered by nanoconfinement of water in mechanically rather rigid …

Over the last 70 years, prebiotic chemists have been very successful in synthesizing the
molecules of life, from amino acids to nucleotides. Yet there is strikingly little resemblance …

The chemical versatility of sulfur and its abundance in the prebiotic Earth as reduced sulfide
(H2S) implicate this molecule in the origin of life 3.8 billion years ago and also as a major …