Softening the “Crystal Scaffold” for Life’s Emergence

Figure 1

The hydrothermal mound as an acetate and methane generator. Steep physicochemical gradients are focused at the margin of the mound (see text also [54] for details). The inset (cross-section of the surface) illustrates the sites where anionic-organic molecules are produced, constrained, react, and automatically organize to emerge as protolife (from Russell and Martin [7] and Russell et al. [54], with permission).