Conspectus The mystery of the origins of life is one of the most difficult yet intriguing
challenges to which humanity has grappled. How did biopolymers emerge in the absence of …

While it is often believed that the origins of life required participation of early biomolecules, it
has been recently proposed that “non-biomolecules”, which would have been just as, if not …

We present a scenario for the origin of biological coding, a semiotic relationship between
chemical information stored in one location that links to chemical information stored in a …

Highlights•Proteins evolved from smaller 'building blocks' of various sizes.•Prebiotic studies
suggest building blocks based on chemical considerations.•Prebiotic peptides could have …

Synthesis of polyester gels via dehydration of α‐hydroxy acids (αHAs) is a plausible route to
form primitive functional polymers. αHApolyester gels assemble into membraneless droplets …

Because of their unique proton-conductivity, chains of phosphoric acid molecules are
excellent proton-transfer catalysts. Here we demonstrate that this property could have been …

Condensation processes such as wet–dry cycling are thought to have played significant
roles in the emergence of proto-peptides. Here, we describe a simple and low-cost method …

Would another origin of life resemble Earth's biochemical use of amino acids? Here, we
review current knowledge at three levels:(1) Could other classes of chemical structure serve …

The chemistry underlying biological homochirality remains challenging. We propose that
non-covalent clusters may have served as the means through which homochiral …

How life arose from the prebiotic earth is an enduring question of modern science.
Informational selfreplicators based on β-sheet forming peptides overcome the limitations of …