Which Organic Compounds Could Have Occurred on the Prebiotic Earth?

Abstract

In the past three decades, a wide variety of experiments have been designed to simulate conditions on the primitive earth and to demonstrate how organic compounds that made up the first living organisms were synthesized. This paper reviews this work and indicates the status of such syntheses. There is too much material to review in detail, and the reader is directed to a number of more complete discussions (Miller and Orgel 1974; Kenyon and Steinman 1969; Lemmon 1970).