The Emergence of Life: From Chemical Origins to Synthetic Biology

point is that theories involving the organization of complex, small-molecule metabolic cycles, such as the reductive citric-acid cycle on mineral surfaces, have to make unreasonable assumptions about the catalytic properties of minerals and the ability of minerals to organize sequences of disparate reactions.

That criticism was relative to the concentration threshold, both for the replication and for the mutations into novel ribozymes.

They propose that the primordial ribosome was actually a ribozyme, with the proposition that the proto-ribosome is the entity around which life has evolved.

“Synthetic biology aims to design and engineer biologically based parts, novel devices and systems as well as redesigning existing, natural

sugars from meteorites have a significant prevalence of the D form

The trilogy of life (from Capra and Luisi, 2014). The organic, living structure interacts with the environment via a cognition sensorium, which is a specific product of its development and evolution.

It is clear, however, that ribosomes could be “simplified” – although at the expense of some activity. This observation is relevant in view of the origin of life and origin of ribosomes, as it conveys the idea that ribosomes might have started in a much simpler form, certainly with a lower number of proteins.

larger vesicles aggregated rapidly upon RNA addition, whereas the smaller ones did not,

The notion introduced by Maturana and Varela proposes to think of biological systems as autonomous agents whose cognitive activity consists not in extrinsic processes of computational problem-solving, but in maintaining themselves – i.e., maintaining the continuity of their processes of self-production – by continuously re-establishing a relationsh