The Evolving Story of How Chemistry Became Biology

Scientists are investigating the 200 million years between when Earth's conditions became suitable for life and when the first single-celled ancestors emerged, moving beyond decades of debate about which molecules initiated life. A new generation of researchers is rethinking the fundamental nature of life itself by studying how chemical systems became self-sustaining, self-reproducing loops that eventually evolved into living organisms. Rather than arguing over whether RNA, proteins, lipids, or metabolites came first, scientists are now exploring broader questions about what constitutes life and how chemistry transformed into biology.