Steps towards life: a perspective on evolution

Part I: `What is life?' - Theme and variations: Life is historical reality Can the historical origin of life be reconstructed? Complexity as a physical problem How does information arise? Life is a dynamic state of matter organized by information Is there a principle of order in biological systems? Evolution means the optimization of functional efficiency What are the natural prerequisites for the origin of life? The ladder of organizational levels Unceasing creation Part II: Vignettes from molecular biology: Sequence comparison (statistical geometry) Sequence comparison (examples) How old are the first life forms? Nucleic acids as information stores: the transition from chemistry to biology Structural forms of the nucleic acids The proteins: molecular purveyors of cellular function Instruction: copying, reading, and translation The genetic code Quasi-species: the cloning of mutant distributions Quasi-species: the structure of mutant distributions Experiments in evolution Sequence space Viral infection Hypercycles and comparements Recombinant DNA Part III: Resume: Darwin is dead - long live Darwin! Epilogue Notes and literature on the history of molecular biology.