The field of prebiotic chemistry has been dedicated over decades to finding abiotic routes
towards the molecular components of life. There is nowadays a handful of prebiotically …

Most attempts to define life have concentrated on individual theories, mentioning others
hardly at all, but here we compare all of the major current theories. We begin by asking how …

The RNA world hypothesis of the origin of life, in which RNA emerged as both enzyme and
information carrier, is receiving solid experimental support. The prebiotic synthesis of …

In this chapter we offer a critical analysis of organizational models about the process of
origins of life and, thereby, a reflection about life itself (understood in a general, minimal …

With the aim of better understanding the nature of metabolism in the first cells and the
relationship between the origin of life and the origin of metabolism, we propose three criteria …

The origin-of-life problem has been traditionally conceived as the chemical challenge to find
the type of molecule and free-solution reaction dynamics that could have started Darwinian …

Conceiving the process of biogenesis as the evolutionary development of highly dynamic
and integrated protocell populations provides the most appropriate framework to address …

Artificial protocellular compartments and lipid vesicles have been used as model systems to
understand the origins and requirements for early cells, as well as to design encapsulated …

Abstract Robert Rosen's (M, R) system is an abstract biological network architecture that is
allegedly non-computable on a Turing machine. If (M, R) is truly non-computable, there are …

Ce chapitre propose un aperçu de la tradition théorique et philosophique qui, au cours des
deux derniers siècles, a mis la circularité au centre de l'analyse des phénomènes …