Chemistry Constraints on the Origin of Life

AbstractThis analysis starts from the view that prebiotic chemical evolution, leading to the first forms of life on earth, was based on a series of sequential steps, each determined by its own contingent initial conditions. This view is opposed to the more established one, which sees the origin of life as a series of preordered series of events, where each one is deterministically caused by the previous one and causally determines the next one. Some of the main constraints of chemistry that affect such prebiotic chemical evolution are examined. The notion of contingency is seen as a very important organizing process subjected to chemistry, whereby contingency also responds to a certain degree of determinism. Kinetic control, as another determinant and constraint of the prebiotic evolutionary process, can be critically important and, at a certain point of the chemical evolutionary process, kinetic control in the form of catalysis will become essential. Simple peptides can be considered as the first catalysts, at least for the condensation of peptide bonds. The concentration threshold for prebiotic reactions is often not taken into account in the literature, particularly in the field