Mechanisms and Likelihood of Life’s Emergence from Chemistry

Ascertain the mechanisms and conditions under which life emerges from nonliving chemistry on young planets, and determine whether abiogenesis is inevitable, extremely unlikely, or contingent on additional, presently unknown factors.

Background

Discussing emergent probability, the paper uses the transition from chemistry to biology to illustrate higher‑level intelligibility arising from lower‑level processes. Despite advances, the concrete pathway by which life first emerged remains unresolved.

This uncertainty affects assessments of fine‑tuning, since the ease or difficulty of abiogenesis influences how stringent life‑permitting conditions must be.