The chemical origin of life: an exploration of thioesters as energy in the prebiotic world

The origin of life has long been a mystery to scientists due to the absence of preservation of molecular structure from millions of years ago. Many hypotheses have been constructed on this topic. This paper contrasts the hypotheses of Dr. Christian De Duve, known best for his Nobel Prize winning work on the cell and the discovery of lysosomes, and Dr. Ronald Fox, a physics professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. De Duve believes that thioesters were precursors to pyrophosphate, which in turn produced adenosine-5\u27-triphosphate, or ATP, a molecule that is used to supply energy for many of life\u27s processes today. Fox, on the other hand, believes that sulfur proteinoids provided the connecting point between prebiotic molecules and evolutionary energy