ORIGIN OF LIFE OX THE SHORES OF THE OCEAN 103 



setting for the problem of the origin of life. It raises further 

 problems: first, the problem of where the external sources of free 

 energy to start the system and to keep It going came from; 

 secondly, of how these energy interchanges within the system were 

 facilitated, as they are in existing life by enzymes; thirdly, of how 

 the system held together and avoided being dispersed in very 

 diluted solution into an extensive ocean; and fourthly, but this 

 comes much later, of how these systems acquired a specific 

 characterization corresponding to a reproduction of certain forms 

 and not of others. 



I shall try to deal with the first three of these questions, but 

 shall only indicate some possible solutions to the last. When we 

 have to consider the formation of anything as complicated as life 

 we do not have to conceive of the ways of building the very 

 elaborate molecules that we find at present in living systems, 

 straight up from the atoms. It appears In biochemistry and, indeed, 

 in organic chemistry generally, that the process of synthesis of very 

 complicated molecules proceeds by stages. The first stage Is to 

 take atoms and bring them together to form a monomer molecule ; 

 the second Is to bring these monomers together to form various 

 polymers. The polymers can then be associated In larger groups 

 and finally lead to visible complexes like tissues, fibers, membranes, 

 and muscles. There are, roughly, only about six of these stages 

 between simple atoms and something that you can see in the 

 microscope. Some of these are illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2. This 

 box within box system may be considered as an extension of 

 Charlier's principle which dealt with the universe composed 

 successively of systems of galaxies, galaxies, star groups, stars, 

 and planets. Here we stretch It down through the organic world 

 to the individual atoms. This enormously reduces the amount of 

 complexity that has to be postulated and therefore increases the 

 probability of a structure being made. The associations at each 

 level occur by means of chemical and physical forces of different 

 strengths and range but this Is not the place to discuss It. I have 

 dealt with it at length in other papers (Bernal, 1958a,b). 



The first stage we have to consider is the formation from the 

 simple molecules that I have indicated, carbon dioxide, ammonia, 



