Note: In this text, I don't show you, the reader, formulas by which inorganic matter organized itself and the first living beings emerged—something like that is impossible due to the complexity of these beings—but I provide an introduction, a summary, through theories, concepts, and disciplines indispensable to the subject, topics that are rarely studied, or perhaps very rarely, in school curricula. This is the main reason why there is so much ignorance about how life truly began on the planet.
“The laws of Physics created subatomic particles and particles, atoms, molecules, carbon compounds, complex molecules, and prebiotic structures, leading to life.”
How did nature go from an atom to a cell?
This is one of the most frequent and difficult questions to answer. It appears alongside the questions “How did the universe and human beings arise?”
There is a highly interdisciplinary area called Abiogenesis dealing with this topic, but, as the title of the text indicates, I have focused on discussing carbon compounds. An initial argument, which I will call Factor 01, used for this purpose, is the very long time frame for the emergence of life, but I have never seen a second, powerful argument: the versatility and high reactivity of carbon compounds. It possesses unique chemical properties, allowing the formation of large and complex molecules, an essential prerequisite for the emergence of living systems. So, in addition to a time span inconceivable to our imagination, around 700/800 million years, 4.5 billion to 3.8 billion years in Earth's history, there is this other factor, which I call Factor 02. The characteristics of carbon that accelerated the formation and complexity of life are:
- Tetravalence: the carbon atom forms four covalent bonds with other atoms. This allows it to serve as a central connection point, bonding to four other elements and building complex three-dimensional structures;
- Catenation: Carbon has the rare ability to stably bond to other carbon atoms, forming long chains, rings, and branched structures. This allows the construction of vast and diverse "molecular skeletons," such as those found in sugars, lipids, proteins, and DNA;
- Varied Bonding: Carbon can form single, double, or triple bonds with other atoms, including itself and elements such as oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. The diversity of bonds increases the number of combinations and ensures the stability and functional variety of organic molecules;
- Intermediate Polarity: Its intermediate electronegativity allows the formation of stable covalent bonds, but these bonds can also be broken under biological conditions. The bonds are strong enough to maintain the structure, but weak enough to be broken and reformed during metabolism and replication. (NELSON; COX, 2019).
This capacity to build an immense number of stable and complex molecules was responsible for the emergence of biological structures such as DNA, for genetic information, and proteins, for structure and catalysis of reactions.
Therefore, the reactivity of carbon, manifested in its ability to form varied and stable bonds, was the chemical engine making chemical evolution possible, leading to the emergence of the first replicating systems and, finally, to life. And we must also consider the immense quantity of carbon compounds produced in the prebiotic phase of Earth, with a magnitude of hundreds of millions to billions of tons, indicated by realistic estimates taking into account three factors:
1 - Endogenous synthesis: experiments like the Miller-Urey experiment of 1952/53 demonstrated that electrical discharges and UV radiation in a reducing atmosphere can produce amino acids and sugars. Imagine this occurring on a global scale for hundreds of millions of years;
2 - Atmosphere and oceans: at the bottom of the oceans, the contact of magma with mineral-rich water creates chemical gradients, continuously synthesizing complex organic molecules;
3 - Hydrothermal vents and exogenous input from space: during the so-called "Late Heavy Bombardment," Earth was hit by millions of comets and meteorites containing carbonaceous chondrites. These bodies are rich in carbon and transported tons of ready-made organic molecules to our planet (URRY et al., 2022).
And how did these carbon compounds come together? Now, let's move on to the third factor, Factor 03.
We often get confused in problems, such as those in Physics or Mathematics, for example, which involve only one variable in simple systems. When two or more variables arise, the problem becomes impossible to solve. To illustrate a question from our daily lives, even ridiculous to mention here, but necessary, I asked several people and received answers in only one way, with only one factor: "Why do you brush your teeth?". Some answered "To clean and preserve my teeth" and others "To avoid bad breath". In fact, both answers are correct, and some found my statement strange. There were those who disagreed...
Thinking about the existence of more than one answer to a problem is very difficult for many people. They are used to a "yes" or "no", failing to mention any other factor between these two in problems with more than one variable, when two or more are necessary to understand the answer.
This is where complex systems with many variables come in, in which a small change in their initial conditions causes very large alterations in their evolution. Although there is an increase in the difficulty of understanding situations of this nature, there are, and therefore we open a parenthesis in relation to the observation made at the beginning of the text, theories, disciplines, and concepts that provide a broader view of the problems of the origin of life. These are the concepts of systems theory, complexity theory, cybernetics, emergence, self-organization of matter, autopoiesis, etc.
Below is a list of many of them, simplifying the subject, because otherwise we would need an entire book. To facilitate understanding of some topics, I have included notes and explanations in brackets:
“System:
The definition of a system may vary in some aspects from author to author. But what all definitions have in common is the basic fact that a system is a set of elements linked together by some form of interdependence. Thus, I can list here other aspects, some more similar, others not:
1 - The elements interact and are interdependent, forming a whole with an objective and performing a specific function (OLIVEIRA, 2016).
2 - The elements interact and are interdependent, but each is considered a system and, acting together, produce a behavior that would not be achieved if these elements acted separately. If, in a set, the relationships between the elements and the behavior of the whole are the focus of attention, this can be considered a system (ALVAREZ, 1990, p. 17).
3 - The elements are not related, constituting a unitary or complex whole.
Note: In my opinion, the definition of whether a system is considered a system depends on how we study it. For example, a rock can be considered a system as long as we study the organization and interaction between the molecules that compose it.
Note on complex systems: a system is complex when, according to Whitesides and Ismagilov (1999), its evolution is very sensitive to initial conditions, the number of independent interacting components is large, and when there are several paths through which the system's evolution can proceed.
System in thermodynamic equilibrium:
It is a system that is simultaneously in thermal, chemical, and mechanical equilibrium, without any measurable macroscopic change in the presence of external disturbances.
Systems in metastable equilibrium:
It is one in which changes occur in the presence of disturbances or forces. These changes are called fluctuations of the system relative to the equilibrium state. They are divided into two groups:
1 - System near equilibrium:
A system in which fluctuations, as they decrease in size over time, cause the system's response to a change to be directly proportional to its intensity.
2 - System far from equilibrium:
A system in which, as fluctuations become increasingly larger, the system tends to evolve towards one possible state among several, making it impossible to predict how this evolution will occur.
Homeostasis:
The property of living beings, or any other open system, to maintain internal variations within certain limits, regulating and maintaining stability without self-destruction through regulatory mechanisms. This is fundamental for any living being.
Synergy:
A multidisciplinary area created by the German physicist Hermann Haken (1927-2024) that studies how patterns can form in open systems far from equilibrium in nature, or how the elements of a system build functional or spatiotemporal structures. Systems far from equilibrium are those where there is a continuous input and output of matter/energy.
Complex Adaptive Systems - CAS:
These are systems in which internal agents are able to alter their information processing functions so that the whole adapts to the external environment: biotic systems.
Autopoietic system [autopoiesis]:
NASA's definition of life: it is a system that continuously rebuilds and reproduces itself, according to Darwin's Theory of Evolution.
Emergent properties:
Properties that arise as a result of the combined action of elements of a system that, individually, would not be able to generate such properties. This expression refers to behaviors and not to entities of a physical, chemical, or any other nature. Furthermore, due to the emergence of previously impossible behaviors, it becomes impossible to predict the behavior of the whole. In a general sense, "the whole is different from the sum of its parts." [The whole can be greater than the sum of its parts in terms of functioning, emergent materialism in the emergence of life, differentiating it from the general notion that the whole is not reduced to its individual parts, reductionism, one of the main arguments against the emergence of life in a materialistic way.]
Metaequilibrium:
Condition of a system in which behavior is organized due to the emergent properties of its elements that are in disequilibrium.
Self-organized criticality:
Capacity or property of a system to direct itself towards a stable state, regardless of initial conditions and disturbances exerted upon it.
Feedback:
Capacity of a system, or its elements, in which part of the output energy returns to control its behavior. There can be positive feedback, where behavior is amplified, negative feedback, where behavior is diminished, and stable feedback, where the system is self-regulated.
[...]
Self-organization:
Organization that arises within a system when it is sufficiently far from a state of thermodynamic equilibrium, having been displaced through the exchange of energy and/or matter with the environment, but not of information. **(PINTO, 2013).**
Note on emergence and self-organization: emergent properties and self-organization are deeply linked. Although they are distinct concepts, they describe two sides of the same coin in the study of complex systems. In simpler terms: self-organization is the process (the "how" it happens) and emergent properties are the result (the "what" arises).
Chemistry is divided into two branches: organic and inorganic, such is the influence of carbon compounds on the history of the emergence of life and on everything that has occurred to date, although organic chemistry also includes studies on plastics, medicines, fuels, etc.
Life is regulation and control. As an example, consider a blood count: blood bags with numbers within or outside an ideal range, considered normal for an individual. These numbers are variables of the organism. If any of them are outside this range, a doctor will take measures, prescribe medications, vitamins, or other tests, so that this substance, ion, molecule, etc., returns to the normal range. This is clearly homeostasis. It is so powerful that the intervention of a doctor, being something external to the system, to the body of an individual, is also part of homeostasis, a "greater" homeostasis, because it is now a regulator with intelligence, formed and trained for such a condition.
As carbon compounds began to form complex molecules, clusters, and prebiotic structures, the properties described above became present—something impossible to achieve with the laws of Physics and Chemistry separately. Only in complex systems with many components is the emergence of unpredictable behavior observed, unlike when, for example, you measure the initial and final position of an object on a straight line and divide by the time interval it takes to travel that distance to obtain its average speed. Just one object, one component!
Life did not arise due to any supernatural influence. For emergent materialism, the transition from "non-living" to "living" is not a miracle, but a process of "phase transition." Just as the fluidity of water emerges from the interaction of water molecules, which individually are not "fluid," life emerges from the interaction of complex chemical cycles. Another example: characteristics such as reproduction, adaptation, and information processing are properties of the complete system, not of a specific molecule.
So, when you hear or talk to someone about the emergence of life through emergentist materialism, think about these three indispensable factors for such a subject, Factors 01, 02, and 03, not necessarily in this order in the text:
1 - Time.
2 - The versatility and high reactivity of carbon compounds.
3 - The unusual properties when studying complex systems.
And to delve even deeper into this subject, research the following topics and disciplines:
1 - Prebiotic Chemistry and Biochemistry;
2 - Geology and Geochemistry;
3 - Thermodynamics of Non-Equilibrium Systems;
4 - Molecular Biology and Cytology.
And the emergence of a multicellular being from a single cell? Cells grouped together, and time and the properties of the aforementioned topics and sciences also came into play.
Notes
(*) Structures selected for their functions, as in the case of mitochondria, which were not yet organelles but bacteria, to later be engulfed by protocells, providing energy through oxygen and feeding on nutrients within the protocells, the two living symbiotically, according to the Law of Functional Information Increase (Wong et al., 2023) and the Law of Functional Information Increase as a consequence of the Systemic Functional Level (PINTO, 2025).
(**) (December 27, 2025) - Want a summary of the systemic view above in the formation of living beings? See:
"Feedback allows homeostasis, interaction generates emergence via self-organization, and autopoiesis ensures the continuity of the system, all within the framework of complexity."
References
ALVAREZ, Maria Esmeralda Ballestero. Organization, systems and methods. São Paulo: McGraw-Hill, 1990.
NELSON, David L.; COX, Michael M. Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry. 7th ed. Porto Alegre: Artmed, 2019.
OLIVEIRA, Djalma de Pinho Rebouças de. Management information systems: strategies, tactics, operations. 16th ed. São Paulo: Atlas, 2016.
PINTO, Argos Arruda. Concepts for this blog - always under construction: system. Systems, chaos, complexity and self-organization of matter, [S. l.], Dec. 29, 2013. Available at: https://sicacoauorma.blogspot.com/2013/12/conceitos-para-este-blog-sempre-em.html. Accessed on: 5 mar 2026.
PINTO, Argos Arruda. The Law of Increased Functional Information as a Consequence of the Systemic Functional Level. Argos' Blog. São Paulo, August 6, 2025. Available at: https://argosarrudapinto.blogspot.com/2025/08/a-lei-do-aumento-da-informacao.html. Accessed on: 5 mar 2026.
URRY, Lisa A. et al. Campbell Biology. 12th ed. Porto Alegre: Artmed, 2022.
WHITESIDES, George M.; ISMAGILOV, Rustem F. Complexity in Chemistry. Science, v. 284, n. 5411, p. 89-92, 1999. DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5411.89.
Wong, Michael L. et al. "On the roles of function and selection in evolving systems". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 120, no. 43, e2310223120, 2023.
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