Chemical reactions will only proceed if they are downhill in a thermodynamic sense such that less stable reactants are converted into more stable products. 2. Reactions that are allowed thermodynamically may not proceed, or may proceed slowly for kinetic reasons. An energy barrier has to be overcome for the reaction to take place. 3. Molecular self-replication of template-like molecules is an established chemical reaction and is kinetically unique. Being autocatalytic, self-replication can lead to dramatic exponential amplification of that template-like molecule until resources (building
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