"Weird Life": Beginning of life

In his lab, Martin Hanczyc makes "protocells," experimental blobs of chemicals that behave like living cells. His work demonstrates how life might have first occurred on Earth ... and perhaps elsewhere too.

Martin Hanczyc is developing novel synthetic chemical systems based on the properties of living systems, in a quest to understand how life forms. These synthetic systems, or "protocells," are model systems of primitive living cells and chemical examples of artificial life. As Rachel Armstrong puts it: "Although the protocell model system is just a chemically modified oil droplet, its dynamics are astonishingly varied and complex."
He's based at the Institute of Physics and Chemistry and the Center for Fundamental Living Technology (FLinT) in Denmark. He is also an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London.
"Martin Hanczyc of the University of Southern Denmark just spoke on his research on protocells. It was, trust me, an astonishing illumination"
Tom Chatfield