ABSTRACT
In the century's end, there were few truly influential journals that attempted to deal with all levels of biological activity from the whole Ecosphere, down to the individual living animal or plant, down to the single DNA molecule. Molecular biology made its name by stressing two categories of biochemical substances that had an overarching role in the transmission of the genetic code and in the biosynthesis and regulation of most other biochemical. Most of the journals that pioneered these studies now go beyond the study of their internal structures and deal with all manner of cellular topics. It became apparent that in some cases adaptive physiology and adaptive behavior were tightly linked, had evolved together over time, and ought to be probed in tandem. The chapter discusses the pre-biological conditions which fostered the rise of the earliest life forms whose protein and nucleic acid interactions began evolution in the first place.
