The Origin of Life

I have found my birthday present;)
   

  
"Morowitz develops a model of the origin of life in which cells originate first, proteins follow, and genes evolve last. This model contradicts conventional wisdom but has the distinct advantage of being testable; and is supported by evidence mustered from biology, biochemistry, and biophysics. Morowitz's expertise in all three disciplines is impressive."-Francisco J. Ayala, Dept. of Ecology and Evol. Biology, University of California, Irvine.
 
"Harold J. Morowitz postulates that the first step toward the origin of life was the spontaneous condensation of amphiphilic molecules to form vesicles (or protocells). This hypothesis provides a framework for reexamining the emergence of cellularity. Morowitz further proposes that core metabolic processes have not changed for some 3.8 billion years, so we can use a study of modern biochemistry to advance our knowledge about the chemical processes of the earliest protocells." Yale univ. press


More about Harold Morowitz and Eric Smith research here
it "may also be true: the continuous generation of sources of free energy by abiotic processes may have forced life into existence as a means to alleviate the buildup of free energy stresses. This assertion – for which there is precedent in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and growing empirical evidence from chemistry – would imply that life had to emerge on the earth" 

"It would show that a part of the order we recognize as living is thermodynamic order inherent in the geosphere, and that some aspects of Darwinian selection are expressions of the likely simpler statistical mechanics of physical and chemical self-organization."