How life on earth first began remains to be one of the most basic, interesting and difficult questions to answer. Experimental as well as model studies and reviews are numerous. The talk will categorise the various approaches to this ultimately unobservable beginning. With 'only' chemical materials, chemical processes plus information involved, possible scenarios are amenable to experimental and theoretical testing, in contrast to large organismal transitions in biology. Of late, non-reductionist non-theistic philosophies have been introduced in origin of life explanations. Is there currently a credible path leading from pre-life mixtures of chemicals to the first cellular organism?
