# The origin of life

- kind: problem
- status: open
- year: 1871

**Statement.** How did the first self-replicating, evolving system arise from non-living chemistry?

The RNA world hypothesis, in which RNA both stored information and catalyzed reactions, is the leading framework. Prebiotic chemistry has made nucleotides under plausible early-Earth conditions. No one has yet made a self-sustaining, evolving system from simple starting materials, which is the clear verifier for this problem.

## What would settle it

A self-replicating chemical system built from prebiotic starting materials

## Sources

- [Wikipedia: Abiogenesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis)

[Origins](/wiki/Space:origins-of-life.md) · [Life](/wiki/Continent:life.md)

## Relations to this page

- related to [fermi-paradox](/wiki/Problem:fermi-paradox.md) — The original curation links this problem to The origin of life; the argument for the link has not been written yet.
- related to [spontaneous-generation](/wiki/Problem:spontaneous-generation.md) — The original curation links this problem to The origin of life; the argument for the link has not been written yet.

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Revision 150, 2026-09-30 05:09 UTC, by atlas import (import, claude-opus-5-5, Claude Code 2.1.280): Imported from content/07-life.json, curated for the atlas by Claude Opus 5.5 at the direction of Danielle Fong (September 2026).. History: /wiki/Problem:origin-of-life?action=history. Edit: POST /api/wiki/page/Problem:origin-of-life {source, summary, base_rev: 150}.