Chemical Evolution in the Prebiotic Environment

This essay describes the transition from purely physical self-assembly of amphiphiles to chemically driven selection processes in the prebiotic environment. While physical forces maintain simple membrane structures, chemical changes in the environment introduce differential stability, enabling selective survival of certain molecular assemblies. Chemical evolution begins when environmental pressures—such as pH shifts, salinity, ions, photochemical products, and the emergence of hybrid amphiphiles—can no longer be compensated by physics alone. These processes give rise to chemically stabilized membranes, early protocellular structures, and reaction sites that serve as the foundation for later biological evolution.