The Correspondence of Isaac Newton,Volume V, 1709–1713, edited by A. Rupert Hall and L. Tilling

This report reviews the recent progress that has been made toward understanding the necessary-for-life chemistry that took place on the prebiotic Earth, and that led to the appearance of the ht living cells. This understanding is based on the simulation, in the laboratory, of conditions analogous to those presumed (on geological and astronomical evidence), to have been present on the primitive Earth. Such research has led to the production of many of the classes of compounds that are key constituents of our contemporary biology. It has also led to the knowledge that abiogenetically produced organic compounds have an intrinsic tendency to assume the forms and the aggregations that are found in living cells. The report concludes with a summary of the exciting new finds of ‘biological’ molecules in interstellar space.     

Comment on ‘Cr LVV Auger emission and photoreduction of hexavalent Cr oxides by A.G. Schrott,G.S. Frankel,A.J. Davenport,H.S. Isaacs,C.V. Jahnes and M.A. Russak’

A paper by Schrott et al. [Surf. Sci. 250 (1991) 139] on the Auger Cr LVV spectra of Al/Cr alloys is commented on.The area of major disagreement regards the hypothesis that Al-alloying suppresses the Cr LVV decay. It is pointed out that the surface chemical composition of the alloys should be considered in detail, and that instrumental factors and the presence of surface contamination would account for the negligible Cr LVV intensity.