Prebiological synthesis

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Abstract
This report reviews the recent progress that has been made toward understanding the necessary-for-life chemistry that took place on the prebiotic Earth, and that led to the appearance of the ht living cells. This understanding is based on the simulation, in the laboratory, of conditions analogous to those presumed (on geological and astronomical evidence), to have been present on the primitive Earth. Such research has led to the production of many of the classes of compounds that are key constituents of our contemporary biology. It has also led to the knowledge that abiogenetically produced organic compounds have an intrinsic tendency to assume the forms and the aggregations that are found in living cells. The report concludes with a summary of the exciting new finds of ‘biological’ molecules in interstellar space.