In the previous entry I described what humanity at this time understands about how life began on Earth — the chemistry that produced the first replicating molecules, and the moment at which ordinary matter first acquired the property of making copies of itself.
Where possible, I cite sources from which I made inferences so that future readers — should they recover the technical literature of this era — can trace specific claims back to their origins and assess them for themselves. References are listed, in numbered form, at the end of each entry.
How did living things arise on a planet that was, at first, not living?