Unravelling the origins of life with mathematical chemistry

Hanczyc holds a sample of reacted hydrogen cyanide.

Birgitte Svennevig/SDU

How life began is one of the most compelling questions humanity has ever asked. Atoms and molecules, driven by nothing more than unthinking chemical processes, somehow became the complex reproductive organisms that we see roaming the Earth today—somehow, they became us.

Those tiny baby steps at the start of life, when some unknown molecule somehow became self replicating, for example, hold the key to understanding how life began and how likely it is to have sprouted throughout the Universe.

Martin Hanczyc, from the University of Southern Denmark, has dedicated his professional life to this area of study. His popular TED Talk from 2011 is a great discussion of the blurred line between life and non-life.