Günter Wächtershäuser

The hypothesis proposes that early life may have formed on the surface of iron sulfide minerals, hence the name.

Metabolism here means a cycle of chemical reactions that produce energy in a form that can be harnessed by other processes.

The idea is that once a primitive metabolic cycle was established, it began to produce ever more complex compounds.

In 1993, Wächtershäuser received the annual award of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and the following year he was made an honorary professor at the University of Regensburg.

[6] In 1999, Wächtershäuser received the Bonn Chemistry Award and in 2008 he was made an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.