ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introduction and a brief background on systems chemistry. It summarizes the contents of some key papers on this subject, to facilitate the forthcoming presentation on the applications to prebiotic chemistry, chemical evolution, and the emergence of life. Systems chemistry is a newcomer among other fields which study complex systems, such as engineering, economics, computer science, biology, and ecology. The history of the development of systems chemistry reveals the growth of the field in fits and spurts. Systems chemistry studies emergent properties of complex mixtures of interacting molecules, such as self-assembling systems and replicating molecules. Importantly, kinetically controlled molecular networks have greater relevance to biology than the thermodynamically controlled ones. The article “Prebiotic systems chemistry: New perspectives for the origins of life” provides an extensive background on prebiotic chemistry. They review prebiotic synthesis of biologically relevant molecules.
