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Contents 



Introduction ... ^j marcel florkin vii 



Some considerations on the primaeval state of the Earth ... by V. G. 



FESENKOV 1 



Primitive planetary atmospheres and the origin of life ... feyH.c.UREY 8 



The origin of the biosphere ... by A. p. Vinogradov 15 



The problem of stages in biopoesis ...^jvj.d.bernal 30 



The formation of the Earth from cold material and the problem of the 

 formation of the simplest organic substances ... 63; b.y. levin 46 



Chemical diversity and the origins of life ...byN.W.FiRiE 55 



The geological conditions for the appearance of life on the Earth, and the 

 problems of petroleum genesis ...^j'P.n.kropotkin 63 



The role of dissymetry in the origin of living material ... by a. p. 

 terent'ev and e. i. klabunovskii 74 



Formation of organic compounds on the primitive Earth ... by s. l. 



MILLER 



85 



The original formation of amino acids under the action of ultraviolet rays 



and electric discharges ... by t. e. pavlovskaya and a. g. paysinskii 98 



Absolute asymmetric synthesis and asymmetric catalysis ... by e. i. 



klabunovskii 105 



On the origin of the fore-protein ...63;s.akabori 116 



Evolution of enzymes and the photosynthetic apparatus ...6yM.CALViN 124 



The nature of the forces operating in the process of the dupUcation of 



molecules in living organisms ...^j^l.pauling 132 



The occurrence of amino acids in nature ...^j^r.l.m.synge 141 



A chemical theory of spontaneous generation ... by s. w. fox 148 



The scale of structural units in biopoesis ...6>;j.d.bernal 155 



Biochemical processes in the simplest structures ...^^a.i.oparin 170 



Protein complexes as biochemically active systems ...^yG.A.DEBORiN 179 



The relation between primitive and present-day photobiological processes 



... by c. REID 189 



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