The RNA World concept posits that there was a period of time in primitive Earth's history—
about 4 billion years ago—when the primary living substance was RNA or something …

A model for the origin of biochemistry at an alkaline hydrothermal vent has been developed
that focuses on the acetyl-CoA (Wood–Ljungdahl) pathway of CO2 fixation and central …

How did life start? Is the evolution of life describable by any physics-like laws? Stuart
Kauffman's latest book offers an explanation-beyond what the laws of physics can explain-of …

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 …

Modern cells embody metabolic networks containing thousands of elements and form
autocatalytic sets of molecules that produce copies of themselves. How the first self …

The origins of life on Earth required the establishment of self-replicating chemical systems
capable of maintaining and evolving biological information. In an RNA world, single self …

Building on the model of Russell and Hall for the emergence of life at a warm submarine
hydrothermal vent, we suggest that, within a hydrothermally formed system of contiguous …

In contrast to ordinary condensed matter systems,“living systems” are unique. They are
based on molecular compartments that reproduce themselves through (i) an uptake of …

Life is that which replicates and evolves, but there is no consensus on how life emerged. We
advocate a systems protobiology view, whereby the first replicators were assemblies of …

Autonomous computations that rely on automated reaction network elucidation algorithms
may pave the way to make computational catalysis on a par with experimental research in …