How did life originate?Many have posed this question from various vantage points. For Xiaoyu Li, Ken Walsh, and Peng Liu, the central issue is the ability of molecule-molecule interactions, through molecular recognition, to direct self-replication. As early as 1956, inspired by the Watson-Crick double helix, synthetic polymers were explored as templates to direct the course of polymerization. Investigations of biological macromolecule templates appeared 10 years later, yet the ability to read polymeric templates sequence and chain length specifically in the absence of biological catalysts remains limited. Now Xiaoyu Li has developed a reaction sequence that accurately controls polymerization along a DNA template to give sequence specific and chain length specific materials. Ken Walsh is extending these ideas with synthetic materials and Peng Liu with proteins.
