The hydrophobic superficial layer: The primordial cradle of life?

Although the origin of life has been traditionally placed in water, this gi ves rise to a number of thermodynamical problems. The hypothesis advanced i n this work is that the first steps towards life took place in the hydrocar bon layer that presumably covered the surface of the primordial ocean. Here hydrophobic amino acids might have found a thermodynamically suitable ambi ent where to concentrate and polymerize. Moreover, the low dielectric const ant of such a hydrophobic superficial layer might have favoured possible el ectrostatic interactions among peptidic chains. We suggest that this might have constituted a thermodynamically favourable basis for the development o f organized molecular systems.