title: Life in a ligand sphere.
abstract: The most fundamental divide in biology is that between heterotrophic and autotrophic ways of life. Two of the leading proponents of a heterotrophic origin of life ("hetero-origin") in a prebiotic broth, C. de Duve and S. L. Miller, have criticized my theory of a pyrite-pulled chemo-autotrophic origin of life ("auto-origin") [De Duve, C. & Miller, S. L. (1991) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88, 10014-10017]. This criticism is now answered.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wächtershäuser
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D002244:Carbon; D008954:Models, Biological; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009696:Nucleic Acids; D000069497:Origin of Life; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D009696:Nucleic Acids; D002244:Carbon