molecules Perspective Molecules, Information and the Origin of Life: What Is Next? Salvatore Chirumbolo 1,* and Antonio Vella 2 1 Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, 37134 Verona, Italy 2 Verona-Unit of Immunology, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Integrata, 37134 Verona, Italy;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +39-0458027645 Abstract: How life did originate and what is life, in its deepest foundation? The texture of life is known to be held by molecules and their chemical-physical laws, yet a thorough elucidation of the aforementioned questions still stands as a puzzling challenge for science. Focusing solely on molecules and their laws has indirectly consolidated, in the scientific knowledge, a mechanistic (reductionist) perspective of biology and medicine. This occurred throughout the long historical path of experimental science, affecting subsequently the onset of the many theses and speculations about the origin of life and its maintenance. Actually, defining what is life, asks for a novel epistemology, a ground on which living systems’ organization, whose origin is still questioned via chemistry, physics and even philosophy, may provide a new key to focus onto the complex nature of the human being. In this scenario, many issues, such as the role of information and water structure, have been long time neglected from the theoretical basis on the origin of life and marginalized as a kind of scenic backstage. On the contrary, applied science and technology went ahead on considering molecules as the sole leading components in the scenery. Water physics and information dynamics may have a role in living systems much more fundamental than ever expected.