Self-Similar Patterns from Abiotic Decarboxylation Metabolism through Chemically Oscillating Reactions: A Prebiotic Model for the Origin of Life.

The origin of life must have included an abiotic stage of carbon redox reactions that involved electron transport chains and the production of lifelike patterns. Chemically oscillating reactions (COR) are abiotic, spontaneous, out-of-equilibrium, and redox reactions that involve the decarboxylation of carboxylic acids with strong oxidants and strong acids to produce CO and characteristic self-similar patterns. Those patterns have circular concentricity, radial geometries, characteristic circular twins, colour gradients, cavity structures, and branching to parallel alignment.