Physical Aspects of the Emergence of Living Cell Precursors: the Ion and Chiral Asymmetries as Two Fundamental Asymmetry Types

The physicochemical prerequisites for the origin of life are considered. A hypothesis on the formation of cell precursors in the course of prebiological evolution at the ocean-air boundary is basically formulated. Theoretical and experimental evidence to support this hypothesis is presented. It is shown that the nonequilibrium surface of the World Ocean exhibits a number of physicochemical properties that could have provided for the spontaneous formation of cell precursors.