Origins, transitions, and traces of life. Comment on "Mineral self-organization on a lifeless planet" by J.M. García-Ruiz et al.

Questions of origins and transitions are the greatest and most exciting questions in Science. One of the most challenging is the Origin of Life (OoL). Because life emerged from natural processes involving liquid water, organic chemistry, and minerals, the limits between non-life and the first forms of life are fuzzy [1]. The transitions from non-life to life may have involved mineral-organic associations and perhaps, biomorphs. Early membranes, metabolisms, and genetic codes may have evolved simultaneously or as independent steps, or perhaps even several times in different physico-chemical niches [2]. However, the absence of sharp criteria to define the earliest living entities prevents the identification of their fossil traces. Moreover, these transitions and origins may have been difficult to preserve and thus to recognize in the sparse and altered oldest rock record.