The textbook provides a fundamentally new perspective on chemical evolution of primordial life under the conditions of the early earth and discusses geological serpentinization as the vital source of activated hydrogen for abiotic carbon and nitrogen fixation to organic molecules today and in the past. It is shown how primordial metabolism was in many respects similar to modern biochemistry using transition metals as catalysts instead of enzymes.

Karl Kleinermanns, William F. Martin, U Düsseldorf, Germany.