Historical Survey -- The Cosmos, the Solar System and the Primeval Earth -- From the Planets to Interstellar Matter -- “Chemical Evolution” -- Peptides and Proteins: the “Protein World” -- The “RNA World” -- Other Theories and Hypotheses -- The Genetic Code and Other Theories -- Basic Phenomena -- Primeval Cells and Cell Models -- Exo/Astrobiology and Other Related Subjects.

Up to now, we do not have a generally accepted theory about the origin of life and about the process of development of life, we only have a great number of - to some extent even contradictory – hypotheses. Meanwhile there came up some scientific findings beyond thought only a few years ago. Horst Rauchfuss is comparing the different theories from the view of the latest results and is giving an exciting and easy understandable insight into the present state of research.