> The big question isn't how simple molecules (building blocks) come about. [...] but there is nothing in between the primordial chemical soup and the simplest

> The big question isn't how simple molecules (building blocks) come about. [...] but there is nothing in between the primordial chemical soup and the simplest life forms. There's a view that the early evolution of "life" involved metabolic cycles that were not yet bounded in cells, but perhaps in increasingly constrained geological boundaries. So for example, early precursors to the Krebs Cycle may have started within oceans, or perhaps some arrangement of pools and geysers or other geological features. So in essence, early life was bounded not in membranes, but within the flows of rock and air and heat of the atmosphere itself. For more citable references to this stuff, this podcast episode from the Santa Fe Institute touches on it: https://complexity.simplecast.com/episodes/40 https://complexity.simplecast.com/episodes/40