Pre-Print Papers & Reading Guide

A structured pathway through a Regulation-First, Phase-Based theory of life

All papers below are open pre-prints hosted on Zenodo.
Titles link to the canonical Zenodo record (latest version, DOI, metadata).
Together, they form a single theoretical programme developed across multiple scales.

A — What is life, fundamentally?

Start here.
This section defines what kind of phenomenon life is — the foundation used everywhere else.

Life as a Phase Transition in Chemical Dynamics

Defines life as a dynamical regime — a phase of matter characterised by persistence, memory, and recovery under stress, rather than a substance, molecule, or replicator.

The Control Principle of Life: A Regulation-First Definition

Reframes life as the continuous regulation of redox and energy flow, rather than replication or metabolism.

RAW — The Redox Assembly Window

Life as a state that must be maintained

Defines the Redox Assembly Window (RAW): a bounded physico-chemical state in which electron flow, molecular binding, and phase behaviour are jointly constrained, allowing complex chemical assemblies to persist without collapsing into runaway reaction or inert mineralisation.

Together, these papers establish the ontological and physical definition of life as a maintained phase.

B — How regulation arises before genes

The physical origin of biological order

A Regulator-First Framework for the Origin and Evolution of Biological Control

Introduces regulation — not replication — as the primary evolutionary requirement.

A Physical Model for Regulation-First in the Proto-Liver Origin of Life (PLOL) Framework

Mechanistic grounding: mineral micro-environments, redox buffering, wet–dry cycling, and constrained flow.

The Proto-Liver Origin of Life (PLOL) Hypothesis

Formal statement of the proto-liver as an early stabilising architecture for sustained regulation.

C — Directionality, continuity, and early constraints

Why chemistry becomes ordered

Redox Directionality as the Origin of Biological Chirality

Explains universal biological handedness via directional electron flow rather than molecular chance.

Heme & Haemoglobin as Biological Echoes of Prebiotic Redox Regulation

Establishes continuity from mineral redox chemistry → porphyrins → heme → physiology.

D — Why life did not have a single origin

Parallel solutions to the same physical problem

Multiple Regulatory Closures in the Origin of Life

Introduces distinct regulatory modes corresponding to major life architectures.

MRO-01 — Origin Structures: Substrate-Specific Pathways to Regulatory Closure

Identifies physical origin structures underlying bacteria, plants, fungi, and animals.

Multiple Regulatory Origins (MRO)

Unified framework explaining deep architectural discontinuities without invoking a single LUCA chemistry.

E — Evolution before genes

How variation exists without heredity

Structural Mutation Before Genes (SM1)

Introduces structural mutation and constraint-biased propagation as a pre-genetic evolutionary process.

F — Why DNA appears, and what it really is

Genes as memory, not instruction

Surplus Energy, Regulatory Damping, and the Emergence of DNA

Frames DNA as a reconstruction constraint arising from surplus energy and regulatory buffering.

DNA as Regulatory Memory

Recasts DNA as stabilised, archived regulatory memory rather than a master control code.

Conditional Execution of Genetic Memory (C3 Framework)

Explains how genetic memory is conditionally accessed, not continuously executed.

DNA Convergence Pressure (DCP)

Resolves LUCA-like convergence without requiring a single origin of life.

G — Scaling regulation into animals

From chemistry to bodies

A Hierarchical Model of Electron-Flow Regulation in Animal Life

Traces continuity from bacteria → mitochondria → liver-centred regulation.

Movement as Regulation

Explains locomotion as a regulatory necessity rather than a behavioural add-on.

H — Extension into cognition and physiology

Where origin-of-life theory meets mind and medicine

The Liver Was the First Brain — LBC Hypothesis

Extends regulation-first logic into prediction, intelligence, and consciousness.

Companion papers expand this framework into medicine, psychology, nutrition, development, and systems theory.

Alternative reading paths

• New to origin-of-life research
  → A → B → F

• Interested in pre-genetic evolution
  → A → D → E

• Interested in physiology and metabolism
  → A → F → G → H

• Interested in cognition and mind
  → A → F → H → LBC companions

Notes on status

All documents are shared as open pre-prints.
They are living works and may be revised as the framework matures.