Water is essential for life as we know it, but it has paradoxically been considered inimical to the emergence of life. Proteins and nucleic acids have sustained evolution and life for billions of years, but both are condensation polymers, suggesting that their formation requires the elimination of water. This presents intrinsic challenges at the origins of life, including how condensation polymer synthesis can overcome the thermodynamic pressure of hydrolysis in water and how nucleophiles can kinetically outcompete water to yield condensation products. The answers to these questions lie in balancing thermodynamic activation and kinetic stability. For peptides, an effective strategy is to directly harness the energy trapped in prebiotic molecules, such as nitriles, and avoid the formation of fully hydrolysed monomers. In this Review, we discuss how chemical energy can be built into precursors, retained, and released selectively for polymer synthesis. Looking to the future, the outstanding goals include how nucleic acids can be synthesized, avoiding the formation of fully hydrolysed monomers and what caused information to flow from nucleic acids to proteins.

正如我们所知，水对生命来说是必不可少的，但自相矛盾的是，它被认为不利于生命的出现。蛋白质和核酸已经维持了数十亿年的进化和生命，但两者都是缩合聚合物，这表明它们的形成需要消除水分。这在生命的起源中提出了内在的挑战，包括缩合聚合物合成如何克服水中水解的热力学压力，以及亲核试剂如何在动力学上超过水以产生缩合产物。这些问题的答案在于平衡热力学活化和动力学稳定性。对于肽，一种有效的策略是直接利用捕获在益生元分子（如腈）中的能量，并避免形成完全水解的单体。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了如何将化学能内置到前驱体中，保留并选择性地释放用于聚合物合成。展望未来，突出的目标包括如何合成核酸、避免形成完全水解的单体以及导致信息从核酸流向蛋白质的原因。