FOREWORD XI 



extremely large amount of attention was given, at the Symposium, to nucleic 

 acids, nucleopro teins and viruses. 



The question of what stage of the evolutionary elaboration of organic material 

 we should associate with the begirming of hfe is one which has aroused much 

 argument. Can Hfe be attributed to individual molecules, even if they are very 

 complex, or only to the multimolecular systems which served as a basis for the 

 emergence of life ? 



Numerous facts were laid before the Symposium, showing ways in which 

 complex organic molecules could combine into multimolecular systems, the 

 development of which could give rise to the emergence of the most primitive 

 organisms. 



The last sessions of the Symposium were devoted to general biochemical 

 problems connected with the further development of metabolism. Although, 

 at first glance, such problems might seem to be outside the scope of the problem 

 of the origin of life, yet the comparative study of metabolism will certainly 

 contribute a very great deal to our understanding of the laws which governed 

 the emergence of metabohsm, i.e. the emergence of the form of the motion of 

 matter which is essentially characteristic of life. 



One very valuable result of the Symposium was that it presented, to any 

 scientist in the world, an extensive front of questions in the solution of which 

 physicists, astronomers, geologists, chemists and biologists of all specialities can 

 play a part. Each of these, if he is seriously interested in the solution of the 

 problem of the origin of hfe, will find his part in the work, in which progress 

 will contribute to a general scientific solution of the problem which concerns 

 us all. 



Furthermore, the Symposium was important, not only on accoimt of its 

 scientific results, but also because this gathering was a new and successful step 

 in fruitful international co-operation between scientists of many countries. 



The present collected volume is intended to bring the results of the work of 

 the Symposium before wider circles of scientists and to enable more rapid 

 progress to be made in the solution of the problem of the origin of life on the 

 Earth. 



A. I. Oparin 



