Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
It is far from certain how simple chemical reactions became interconnected networks that gave rise to life on early Earth. Exploring the possible ways in which this could have occurred is an active area of research and a collection of articles in this issue consider what chemical steps may have been taken on the path towards life as we know it today.