Researching the origins of life involves study of biology, chemistry, geology, palaeontology, physics, cosmology and information theory, among other disciplines. Investigations require that researchers consider conditions on the early Earth and how they changed, understand fundamental issues in systems chemistry and identify the most essential features of living organisms. As a result, progress in this area depends partly on improvements to the geological record, partly on advancements in measurement techniques necessary to study highly complex chemical systems, and to a great extent on progress in fundamental biology.

Much progress has been made, but there remain many areas of debate, such as the chronological order in which nucleic acids, other polymers, metabolic reactions, lipid-based compartments and various other components of living systems arose.¹,² In order to answer such questions, researchers attempt to experimentally demonstrate geologically plausible processes that lead to life-like behaviours, features and phenomena.

There is also no settled theoretical framework for studies of the origins of life. A recent proposal called Assembly Theory,² for instance, has not yet achieved widespread acceptance. Assembly theory aims to measure the complexity of a molecule by the number of steps required to make it. However, life often acts to simplify the molecules it uses, and furthermore much of the complexity lies not in the individual molecules but rather in the set of interactions between them. This means that researchers must study not only individual chemical processes but also the environment in which they happen — and their effects on neighbouring processes taking place within that environment.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Understanding the origins of life is of both practical and philosophical interest. Not only does this subject have the potential to add to physics, biology and medicine, it may also inform humanity’s understanding of its place and role in the universe. Research efforts in this area involve attempts to understand and create the Prebiotic chemistry that can give rise to phenomena associated with life, and to understand the Systems biology of how these phenomena interact to create the complexities observed in living systems. These theoretical and experimental investigations are informed and supplemented by ongoing research into the history of life, as revealed in The geological record on Earth and in the evidence derived from studies of chemical processes and molecular signatures observed in off-Earth environments. Studies of the surfaces and atmospheres of the solar system’s planets and moons, and the light received from planetary environments beyond our solar system, offer promising routes to understanding Exobiology, and how life might arise in ways that differ from terrestrial biological pathways.