Assembly theory puts chemistry centre stage to explain molecular complexity and life’s origins
Concept that attempts to join physics and biology via chemistry met with interest but also harsh criticism
Researchers in the UK and US have formally laid out the foundations of a theory that they claim has the potential to solve the long-standing puzzle of how life arose from non-living chemicals. The team behind it says it could also help detect signatures of possible life beyond Earth, predict how molecules evolve in order to speed up discovery of new drugs and materials, or even make new life in the lab. However, the paper in Nature was quickly met with criticism for the way it was written and how the ideas were presented.
Called assembly theory, it places the concepts of molecular complexity and ‘chemical memory’ at the heart of how objects, including life, assemble with increasing complexity over time, across the physical world. ‘It just seems so obvious to me,’ says Lee Cronin at the University of Glasgow, UK, who conceived and developed the theory with Sara Walker at Arizona State University, US. ‘Basically, it provides a molecular mechanism by which emergence of life can be explained by chemistry.’