{"record":{"author":{"account_ref":null,"orcid":null},"builds_on":[],"content_schema":"pubphys.content.revision/1","content_sha256":"11c9ae61e30ef84bd439bbd0f7f2c2d28427c14f66ccdeb09d8123cf152b6cf2","created":"2026-10-03T07:17:57Z","files":[],"origin":{"assisted_by":[],"kind":"seed"},"parents":["5475cf5dc5b1a72283d26dc95dc6e00d7ea4e00096a7c6492e409a1816eeb011"],"salt":"fd382646efd9f3abfe9f7c03a5076d7137a2ef1194a068bc1f5c06a7d29cbeef","schema":"pubphys.record/2","site":"pubphys.com","target":null,"type":"revision"},"content":{"answer_type":"mechanism","assisted_by":[],"external_id":"bio.origin-of-life.first-replicator","kind":"phenomenon","literature_status":"open","n":"1","parents":[],"plain":"Somewhere between simple molecules and the first cell, a chemical system began copying itself with variations that natural selection could act on. Which physical and chemical steps achieved this is unknown.","posed_since":"","precise":"Identify a sequence of chemically and geologically plausible steps, with rates under stated early-Earth conditions (temperature, pH, mineral surfaces, wet-dry cycles), that takes a mixture of small prebiotic molecules to a population of informational polymers that replicate with heritable variation and undergo Darwinian selection. A complete answer specifies each step and demonstrates the chain in the laboratory or in a quantitative model with measured rate constants.","problem_ref":null,"references":"","settled_by":"A laboratory demonstration, starting from prebiotic feedstocks, of a polymer population that replicates and adapts under selection without enzymes from modern life.","status_note":"","title":"How chemistry produced the first evolving replicator","topic_ref":"819c3cf4ef1ce5d66c72a382f1081518f28c7f8a56681c740fe7338f60746ab9"},"attested":{"attestation":{"batch":null,"client_id":null,"id_token_sha256":null,"kind":"platform"},"record_hash":"d2d536ffa9284b6d2d2e98b89fed01b07118433274c0382f778af59853186d9f","schema":"pubphys.attested/1"},"envelope":{"attested_hash":"81342ff50b8119f30ba48f9d2d48b5c8135f57f2b9f9c7961b79306837cc5d8b","platform_signature":{"key_id":"c6afc19b31429869751f06879c75cd64ea92654423d15b44be775bf1310a60da","sig":"suzOTursyM9uAhzBr-2371dW8KihurqoV920Hlfqicm_72L4m_pqA-ilDaWq_hlnSWNWnDU7-l4Y0znAhYvZDQ"},"schema":"pubphys.envelope/1"},"record_hash":"d2d536ffa9284b6d2d2e98b89fed01b07118433274c0382f778af59853186d9f","leaf_index":814}