The origins of research into the origins of life

Most scientists at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century chose to ignore the question of the origin of life on Earth, regarding it as too mysterious and complex to handle. Yet, in the early 1950s an experimental field devoted to the study of the problem made its first steps. The pioneering theories of several scientists in the first decades of the 20th century played a major role in this transformation, notably those of the Russian biochemist Alexander I. Oparin and the British geneticist and biochemist J.B.S. Haldane. The ideas of the lesser-known American psycho-physiologist Leonard Troland also made a significant contribution to subsequent developments in origin-of-life research. Therefore, it is well worth taking a look at the professional, philosophical and ideological commitments that shaped the approaches of the three scientists to origin-of-life research.