Conundra
How and where did molecular synthesis take place?
It is now thought that perhaps minerals served as substrates -- platforms for reactions. Minerals have several advantages:
there can be physical constraints, i.e., keeping all your molecules in a small volume so that they are more likely to interact with each other.
there can be chemical additions, that is, some minerals have chemically advantageous compositions that could induce and support proto-bio-molecular reactions.
the early Earth was a geologically active place (as we will see in a couple of weeks) and so there may have been a wide range of fresh mineral surfaces continually being created.
Remember chirality!
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