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 …

The origin of life is a fascinating, unresolved problem whose deciphering would have
important scientific, epistemological and social implications. Over time, philosophers and …

Hydrothermal fields on the prebiotic Earth are candidate environments for biogenesis. We
propose a model in which molecular systems driven by cycles of hydration and dehydration …

The complexity of life boils down to the definition:“self-sustained chemical system capable of
undergoing Darwinian evolution”(Joyce, 1994)[1]. The term “self-sustained” implies a set of …

Life is made of the intimate interaction of metabolism and genetics, both built around the
chemistry of the most common elements of the Universe (hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and …

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 …

Contemporary biological cells are highly sophisticated dynamic compartment systems which
separate an internal volume from the external medium through a boundary, which controls …

In this mini-review we would like to summarize the recent advances in the field of protein
and nucleic acid synthesis inside lipid vesicles (liposomes). This research, which originated …

The emergence of natural selection, requiring that reproducing entities present variations
that may be inherited and passed on, was arguably the most important breakthrough in the …

The problem of the abiotic origin of RNA from prebiotically plausible compounds remains
unsolved. As a potential partial solution, we report the spontaneous polymerization of 3 …