生命起源是当代最大的科学疑谜之一，也是历来人类普遍关注的一个焦点。在地球上最早的生物出现之前，有机物经历了漫长而复杂的化学进化过程，称为生命的化学进化。地球上生命的化学进化与非生物部分的早期演化过程，是密切地相互关联、相互作用并相互制约的。文章着重阐述与生命的化学关系最为密切的冥古宙和太古宙的地球演化历史，指出这两个阶段所形成的还原性原始大气和古海洋条件在生命的化学进行中起了极其重要的作用，并且从宇宙形成、太阳系演化和地球环境早期演化的角度，探讨地球生命的化学进化历程；以地球形成初期发生了一系列复杂的有机化学反应过程，由无机分子生成生物小分子，再进一步生成生物大分子，直至最后产生原始细胞。此外，文章评述当前国际上最流行的生命化学进化学说，对早期地球的化学进化是发生在地球表面的原始海洋、粘土矿物、火山喷发等，或是来源于地球之外的宇宙空间进行了综合的阐述。

The origin of life is one of the greatest scientific enigmas in modern world, and has ever attracted public attention. The elongated and complicated chemical process before the earliest cellular organism is defined as the chemical evolution of life. The chemical evolution of life and the early evolution of the earth's lifeless components constituted a set of interrelated, interactive and restricted processes. We illustrate the complicated series of chemical reaction, the formation of small organic molecules from inorganic matter, and then that of large organic molecules, and finally the origin of the earliest primitive cells in respect of the environmental evolution of the Universe, the Solar system and the primitive Earth. We also discuss and summarize most popular current hypothesis about the chemical evolution of life, concerning its early chemical evolution in primitive oceans, on the surfaces of clay minerals, via eruption of volcanoes, or came from the outer space beyond the Earth.

Q10

国家自然科学基金资助项目 ( 4 95 72 0 85 )