There
is no doubt that water is pivotal to life. Yet, as the emergence of life is
still a big challenge in science, the detailed involvement of water in that
process is not well recognized. Following the clues provided by recent
single-molecule studies on DNA, we attempt to elucidate the possible roles of
water in the prebiotic chemical evolution. Water has been long recognized as an
important reactant in the Miller-Urey experiment and then as the only solvent
of the primitive soup. Besides these, water also played a vital role in the prebiotic
chemical evolution: water is the important criterion in the combinatorial
library screening for self-assembling macromolecules. With this notion, the uniformity
of biochemistry for all terrestrial life may be explained. A possible roadmap
from inorganic world to the origin of life is also discussed.
