Two approaches to the study of the origin of life.

This paper compares two approaches that attempt to explain the origin of life, or biogenesis. The more established approach is one based on chemical principles, whereas a new, yet not widely known approach begins from a physical perspective. According to the first approach, life would have begun with - often organic - compounds. After having developed to a certain level of complexity and mutual dependence within a non-compartmentalised organic soup, they would have assembled into a functioning cell. In contrast, the second, physical type of approach has life developing within tiny compartments from the beginning. It emphasises the importance of redox reactions between inorganic elements and compounds found on two sides of a compartmental boundary. Without this boundary, ¿life¿ would not have begun, nor have been maintained; this boundary - and the complex cell membrane that evolved from it - forms the essence of life

Quantum L∞L_\infty Aagebras and the homological perturbation lemma

Quantum $L_\infty$ algebras are a generalization of $L_\infty$ algebras with a scalar product and with operations corresponding to higher genus graphs. We construct a minimal model of a given quantum $L_\infty$ algebra via the homological perturbation lemma and show that it's given by a Feynman diagram expansion, computing the effective action in the finite-dimensional Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism. We also construct a homotopy between the original and this effective quantum $L_\infty$ algebra