I am not any sort of chemist, let alone a biochemist, so this is all fanciful speculation.
I also haven’t read the book, but I don’t read the review as suggesting “creatures” at all. Just collections of compounds near membranes, in a positive feedback loop where the presence of those compounds makes it more likely that those compounds are produced from the other stuff in the environment.
In that sort of picture, it seems somewhat plausible that initially such feedback loops and diffusion could stand in for reproduction within the environment of a single smoker. Greater or lesser variations in the environment might provide selection effects toward robustness of feedback loops.
I can imagine some intermediate stage between free-floating chemicals near membranes and a fully formed cell: forming an extra membrane when conditions change in some direction, such as increased temperature. This could prevent diffusion and mixing of any more harmful environment with the mixture. When the conditions return to normal, the extra membrane dissolves and the chemicals start diffusing and catalysing their own production again.
I am not any sort of chemist, let alone a biochemist, so this is all fanciful speculation.
I also haven’t read the book, but I don’t read the review as suggesting “creatures” at all. Just collections of compounds near membranes, in a positive feedback loop where the presence of those compounds makes it more likely that those compounds are produced from the other stuff in the environment.
In that sort of picture, it seems somewhat plausible that initially such feedback loops and diffusion could stand in for reproduction within the environment of a single smoker. Greater or lesser variations in the environment might provide selection effects toward robustness of feedback loops.
I can imagine some intermediate stage between free-floating chemicals near membranes and a fully formed cell: forming an extra membrane when conditions change in some direction, such as increased temperature. This could prevent diffusion and mixing of any more harmful environment with the mixture. When the conditions return to normal, the extra membrane dissolves and the chemicals start diffusing and catalysing their own production again.