title: Life as a cosmic imperative?
abstract: The origin of life on Earth may be divided into two stages separated by the first appearance of replicable molecules, most probably of RNA. The first stage depended exclusively on chemistry. The second stage likewise involved chemistry, but with the additional participation of selection, a necessary concomitant of inevitable replication accidents. Consideration of these two processes suggests that the origin of life may have been close to obligatory under the physical-chemical conditions that prevailed at the site of its birth. Thus, an extrasolar planet in which those conditions were replicated appears as a probable site for the appearance of extra-terrestrial life.
authors.affiliation: de Duve Institute, 75, Avenue Hippocrate, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium. deduve_private@icp.ucl.ac.be
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: de Duve
mesh_terms: D018534:Earth, Planet; D019418:Evolution, Chemical; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D018559:Exobiology / Q000379:methods*; D005118:Extraterrestrial Environment / Q000737:chemistry*; D019369:Life; D000069497:Origin of Life; D012641:Selection, Genetic