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Question
What are the 3 main ideas on the origin of life?
I wish there were just three main ideas on the origin of life, but the situation is more complicated than that. Although scientists have made great progress in understanding the way complex organic compounds are formed both in space and on the ancient earth, they still do not know how life -- self-organizing systems with both metabolic functions and heredity -- arose. There are a number of recent books that discuss the origin of life, such as "Life Evolving: Molecules, Mind and Meaning" by Christian de Duve (Oxford 2002), "The Fifth Miracle: Search for the Origin and Meaning of Life" by Paul Davies (Simon & Shuster 1999), and "Origins of Life" by Freeman Dyson (Cambridge U. 1999).
David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
May 24, 2004
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