Interesting read here and support for my thesis re self organizing systems. Please tell me what you think Kate - but don't make it too complex as I am no chemist/biologist anything-Ruby
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2857173/
Where Do We Go from Here?
The pathway to life may be seen as a saga of increasing chemical and physical complexity (see, for example,Hazen 2010). The modern field of “systems chemistry” (von Kiedrowski 2005) seeks to understand the chemical roots of biological organization by studying the emergence of system properties that may be different from those showed individually by the components in isolation. The implications of the single chirality of biological molecules may be viewed in this context of complexity. Whether or not we will ever know how this property developed in the living systems represented on Earth today, studies of how single chirality might have emerged will aid us in understanding the much larger question of how life might have, and might again, emerge as a complex system.
Thanks for asking my advice about your thesis. Seeking the chemical roots of biological organization sounds very complex to me. I don't know anything about biological organisation. I didn't even know it was a subject of scientific learning. As far as chemical roots are concerned. All I really know is what I have learned in physical chemistry, inorganic chemistry, and organic chemistry. I would expect organic chemistry is the branch you would be best to learn from, but also physical chemistry is good too, as that concentrates on the make up of the atom and sub atomic particles, so the roots go back further.
I am no chemist or biologist either. I am a chemical analyst. May I ask why you are doing this thesis?