Physical aspects of the emergence of living cell precursors: the ion and chiral asymmetries as two fundamental asymmetry types

Abstract

The physicochemical prerequisites for the origin of life are considered. A hypothesis on the formation of cell precursors in the course of prebiological evolution at the ocean-air boundary is basically formulated. Theoretical and experimental evidence to support this hypothesis is presented. It is shown that the nonequilibrium surface of the World Ocean exhibits a number of physicochemical properties that could have provided for the spontaneous formation of cell precursors.