Includes bibliographical references.

Biographical Sketch of Cyril Ponnamperuma -- The Physicochemical Origins of the Genetic Code / Cyril Ponnamperuma, Mitchell K. Hobish and Nalinie Wickramasinghe -- Role of Nitriles and Other Reactive Molecules in Chemical Evolution / Mohindra S. Chadha -- Formation of Amino Acid Precursors by Cosmic Radiation in Primitive Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Environments / Kensei Kobayashi, Takeshi Saito and Tairo Oshima -- Hydrogen Cyanide Polymers: Prebiotic Agents for the Simultaneous Origin of Proteins and Nucleic Acids / Clifford N. Matthews -- A Plausible Route for the Synthesis of Bio-Organic Compounds from Inorganic Carbon on the Primitive Earth. An Overview / G. Albarran, A. Negron-Mendoza, S. Ramos-Bernal and C. H. Collins -- Early Terrestrial Life: Problems of the Oldest Record / Manfred Schidlowski -- Energy, Matter and Self-Organization in the Early Molecular Evolution for Bioenergetic Systems / Herrick Baltscheffsky and Margareta Baltscheffsky --

The Evolution of Organisation and the Perils of Errors in the Origin of Life / Clas Blomberg -- On Attempts to Create Life-Mimicking Cells / F. R. Eirich -- Computational Support for Origins of Life Research: A Personal View / Mitchell K. Hobish -- Membrane Phase Separations, Asymmetry and Implications in the Origin of Life / Michael O. Eze -- General Crystal in Prebiotic Context / I. Simon -- Self-Ordering and Polymerization in Biological Macromolecules and Symmetry Breaking / Giuseppe Vitiello -- Return to Dichotomy: Bacteria and Archaea / A. Yamagishi and T. Oshima -- RNA: Genotype and Phenotype / Peter F. Stadler -- Gradual Rise of Cellular Translation / M. Rizzotti -- Molecular Relics from Chemical Evolution and the Origin of Life / Julian Chela-Flores -- Designing a Biosphere for Mars / Robert H. Haynes and Christopher P. McKay --

Unexpected In-Vitro Intron Splicing of Common Bean Chloroplast trnL (UAA) Gene and Pseudogene by T7 RNA Polymerase / O. Carelse and M. V. Mubumbila -- On Dyson's Model of the Origins of Life and Possible Experimental Verification / J. N. Islam and M. K. Pasha -- The Role of Information Processing in the Evolution of Complex Life Forms / K. Tahir Shah -- The Weak Force and the Origin of Life and Self-Organization / Alexandra J. MacDermott -- Tunneling, Chirality and Cold Prebiotic Evolution / Vitalii I. Goldanskii -- Finding the Necessary Condition and Scope of L-Amino Acid Surviving Under Beta Electron Irradiation / W. Q. Wang, J. L. Wu, X. M. Pan and L. F. Luo -- Chiral Interaction in Molecular Systems / G. Gilat -- Cosmological Sources of Molecular Chirality / J. Chela-Flores and N. Kumar -- Photograph of the award of a plaque to Professor Cyril Ponnamperuma -- On the Occasion of the Ponnamperumafest: Message for Cyril Ponnamperuma from Abdus Salam --

On the Occasion of the Ponnamperumafest: A Letter from Francois Raulin -- A Comprehensive Bibliography of Cyril Ponnamperuma.