Harvard University and The Jeffrey Epstein Foundation Search for the Origin of Life Last week, the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard University, announced to a panel of scientists and to The Jeffrey Epstein Foundation, its main sponsor, that its staff were one step closer to understanding the link between chemical kinetics and when life takes over. "Prelife morphs into life when replication occurs," Martin Novak asserted, Director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics and Professor of Mathematics and Biology at Harvard. "There are many attributes necessary for life," he explains, "and it's not clear whether metabolism came first or replication. What is clear, is that replication sets evolution into full motion, dramatically distinguishing life from prelife. It's the mechanism that allows for efficiency and complexity to develop." "Replication is the ultimate catalyst for life," Jeffrey Epstein adds, founder of The Jeffrey Epstein Foundation. "The fittest molecules dominate quickly, then on an exponential level and then are selected again." To illustrate this, Novak and his team use a synthetic approach to recreating life. Specifically, their model of prelife consists of activated ribonucleotides (the building blocks for DNA and RNA) and an environment conducive to their polymerization (the process by which molecules combine to form chains). Novak explains that this synthetic approach is favorable for a host of reasons. Firstly, it's virtually impossible to recreate the atmosphere that existed when life began four billions years ago. Secondly, simple compounds, such as ribonucleotides, can more clearly reveal the steps towards life. Thirdly, polymerized nucleotide molecules can form replicating templates. Lastly, the famous 1952 Miller Urey experiment and derivatives of that, established that amino acids and other organic compounds could well have emerged from the atmosphere of early earth. After creating polymer chains from activ