Chemical Evolution and the Origin of Life

Front Cover
Radiation Laboratory, University of California, 1955 - Autocatalysis - 23 pages
A discussion is presented of the elements, or at least most of the elements, that are usually thought of as required and characteristic of living materials. A continuous evolutionary process is conceived, beginning with a bare earth and leading to the random formation of more or less complex molecules from simple ones, and gradually, by the processes of random variation, autocatalysis and selection, to more complex systems and the ordered array of desoxynucleic acid molecules which are the units that carry the continuity and order of present-day living systems.

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Bibliographic information