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Origins of life

The first two billion years

Nature volume 387, pages 662–663 (1997)Cite this article

The problems associated with defining the origins of, and transitions between, different levels of biological organization receive increased attention these days, and rightly so. New discoveries and models help us to account for the processes that resulted in new ways of storing and retrieving hereditary information. These processes often relied on the formation of higher-level evolutionary units from previously unlinked replicators — small units that can replicate independently1. This was the subject of a recent meetingFootnote 1, organized by the Swedish Natural Science Research Council, at which topics ranging from the origin of the first replicators to the emergence of multicellular eukaryotes were discussed.

*Scientific Forum on the Origin of Life, Arken, Gothenburg, Sweden, 7-9 April 1997.

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Figure 1: The origins of nucleic-acid-like molecules.

Notes

  1. *Scientific Forum on the Origin of Life, Arken, Gothenburg, Sweden, 7-9 April 1997.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Taxonomy and Ecology, Eötvös University, Ludovika tér 2, H-1083 Budapest, and at the Collegium Budapest, Szentháromság u. 2, H-1014, Budapest, Hungary

    Eörs Szathmáry

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  1. Eörs Szathmáry
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Szathmáry, E. The first two billion years. Nature 387, 662–663 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/42610

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