The Redox Assembly Window: Life as a State That Must Be Maintained

The origin of life is commonly approached through molecule-centric frameworks that focus on the synthesis of specific compounds such as nucleotides or polymers. However, such approaches often overlook a more fundamental problem: chemistry in open environments naturally progresses toward thermodynamic completion through oxidation, precipitation, or polymerisation, whereas life requires chemistry that remains persistently unfinished. This paper introduces the Redox Assembly Window (RAW), a bounded physico-chemical state in which electron flow, molecular binding, and phase behaviour are jointly constrained such that complex chemical organisation can persist without collapsing into either uncontrolled reaction or inert mineralisation. RAW is defined as a state rather than a substance, pathway, or structure, and is proposed as a necessary precondition for sustained chemical organisation prior to genetics. Within RAW, chemical memory can emerge through surface occupancy and state history, while exit from RAW leads to irreversible chemical relaxation, providing a physical basis for pre-biological “death” and selection before replication. The framework explains how early life internalised environmental RAW through membranes and redox regulation, and demonstrates continuity between prebiotic chemistry and modern biology, including mitochondria and photosynthesis. By reframing life as a state that must be actively maintained rather than a collection of molecules, this work unifies geochemistry, electrochemistry, prebiotic chemistry, and biology under a common physical constraint. The Redox Assembly Window narrows the search space for life’s origin and provides falsifiable predictions for both experimental and computational investigation.