After a historical and general introduction, this film illustrates the issues faced by modern science as it tries to determine the origin of life on Earth. How did pre-biotic molecules organize themselves into complex structures, and then the first forms of "minimal life?"

Following presentations on the nature of proteins and their constituents amino acids, and on the nature of the nucleic acids RNA and DNA, THE ORIGIN OF LIFE explains the two most broadly accepted experimental approaches to the question: how did complex macromolecules, and possibly also primordial cellular boundaries, come to exist?

The first approach is usually called the "RNA World," which bases the origin of life on RNA, a molecule that contains genetic information and is similar to DNA.

The second approach is called "compartmentalist," as it identifies the closed compartment that constitutes a cell as the fundamental structure that, thanks to a metabolic activity, led to the origin of life. This encompasses the "autopoietic" hypothesis.

THE ORIGIN OF LIFE looks at the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, and at what each still can't explain. What is needed is the complementary aspect, which would combine both.