Abstract: This essay highlights critical aspects of the plausibility of pre-Darwinian evolution. It is based on a critical review of some better-known open, far-from-equilibrium system-based scenarios supposed to explain processes that took place before Darwinian evolution had emerged and that resulted in the origin of the first systems capable of Darwinian evolution. The researchers’ responses to eight crucial questions are reviewed. The majority of the researchers claim that there would have been an evolutionary continuity between chemistry and “biology”. A key question is how did this evolution begin before Darwinian evolution had begun? In other words the question is whether pre-Darwinian evolution is plausible. Marc Tessera, “Is pre-Darwinian evolution plausible” at Biology Direct
The paper is open access.
One problem is that life forms, as we know them strive to stay in the organized state we call being “alive.” Rocks don’t strive to prevent themselves from becoming sand. What would drive non-life to become life?
Note: A friend also writes to say, Biology Direct has been a favorite journal for some time, for two reasons:
1. Open access — every paper, all the time
2. The referee reports and the author’s responses are appended to each paper. Now that’s science transparency.
See also: Before RNA world: Motivated soup world