Evolutionary Theory and Processes: Modern Horizons
Any attempt to study the transition from inanimate to animate matter must include a definition of a living entity and its central attributes. The definition of life used in !he present work is based on the idea !hat the organizational principle, characterizing both past and present living entities, is a feedback system in an adequate geochemical environment and in !he context of an appropriate chemical composition. By extending this principle to the molecular level of the transition from inanimate to animate matter, the origin of life is viewed as the establishment of the first "living" entity (or population of "living" entities) characterized by feedback loops and compartmentation and amenable to Darwinian evolution. Thus, the emergence of compartmenttalized, catalyzed, and template-directed feedback loops in an inanimate, fluctuating, and rhy1hmical environment is identical with the emergence of living entities. It is proposed !hat, as such, it is also amenable to artificial syn!hesis in a test-tube.