Origin of life: Focus shifts from 'hardware' to 'software'
Wednesday, December 12, 2012 - 23:00
in Biology & Nature
One of the great mysteries of life is how it began. What physical process transformed a nonliving mix of chemicals into something as complex as a living cell? A novel approach to the question of life's origin attempts to dramatically redefine the problem by shifting attention from the "hardware" -- the chemical basis of life -- to the "software" -- its information content.