Scientific research into the origins of life remains exploratory and speculative. Science has no definitive answer to the biggest questions--What is life? and How did life begin on earth? In this book, Jan Spitzer reconceptualizes origins research by exploiting a modern understanding of non-covalent molecular forces and covalent bond formation--a physicochemical approach propounded originally by Linus Pauling and Max Delbruck. Spitzer develops the Pauling-Delbruck premise as a physicochemical jigsaw puzzle that identifies key stages in life's emergence, from the formation of first oceans, tidal sediments, and proto-biofilms to progenotes, proto-cells and the first cellular organisms.