Almost every book on the origins of life starts after life began. This is a book that asks and tries to answer the question, "what did pre-life look like before life existed?" That makes this book special. And it is an important book for those who are interested in contemplating the origins of life.



How does the author accomplish this? He surveys the biochemical processes present in life today and narrows it down to a short list of biochemical processes (and structures) which are present in all life, and especially in life considered to be decendent and largely representative of organisms present on the planet 4 billion years ago. What you are left with is a limited list of processes that must have been present in the first living organism that gave rise to all life, and that must have been present to a given extent in those initial life and pre-life forms that did not survive to populate the planet.