Origin of Life: Pollack, Figueroa, and Zhao

``This paper explores the mechanism of accumulation of molecules into the condensed state. The focus is on the forces responsible for driving condensation, and the energy source underlying those forces. Recent work has provided fresh clues which derive primarily from the recently revealed nature of interfacial water, i.e., water adjacent to hydrophilic surfaces. Such water turns out to have features remarkably different from bulk water, and these features appear to underlie the attraction and repulsion of substances. Oppositely charged substances are attracted naturally; but the above-mentioned features go on to explain why even like-charged substances are attracted to one another to form condensed coascervates — thereby permitting multiple repeats of the same molecule to condense into a proto-cell.''

Taken from Int. J. Mol. Sci.