One might think it impossible to determine the chemical origin of life, since it happened over four billion years ago. But science, logic and evolution place strict limits on what models are reasonable. 

    Here are some limits assumed by the Darwinian Polymer Model (DPM):

    
1) Earthly life began on Earth.

    Of course, life might have started elsewhere. But Ockham's razor dictates that simple models are the preferred choice. Models that begin with life on Earth are simpler because they don't have to explain how life started elsewhere, came to Earth, and thrived. So it is best to choose a model where life started on Earth in the absence of a good reason to suggest life began elsewhere.


2) Chemistry and physics are the sole determinants of what happened.

    According to science, chemical and physical laws determine the path to life at all times. Thus, chemical and physical laws determine the path to life in the DPM.

    
3) Evolution helps explain how simple chemicals transformed to modern cellular life.

    According to science, evolution helps explain how living things are, were, and continue to be created. In the DPW, evolution occurs from the very beginning of life. The simplest form of the Darwinian Polymer Model is mostly concerned with the simplest feature of evolution, which is:

        Things that make near copies of themselves will accumulate and form new things 
        over time. 

        Newly-formed things that accumulate better will predominate over time.

    It is these simple principles (and chemistry) that guides the DPM from chemicals to cellular life.

    NOTE- According to the DPM, evolution of the earliest genetic material (small phosphate polymers) was not truly Darwinian. This is because the chemical, functional and genetic properties of the polymers were linked. Thus, chemistry helped direct the formation of new living things that accumulated better in a way that it generally does not today.

    The goal of this website is to describe a pathway for the formation of modern living things that is consistent with the above limits. We propose that the Darwinian Polymer Model (DPM)describes such a pathway, and is therefore the current best (and perhaps only) candidate for the true origin of Earthly life.

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