(1) The reconstruction of some of the pathways which may have led to the origin of life, by means of laboratory simulation of processes yielding prebiological organic molecules (2) The developments in experimental and theoretical biology; specifically, the role of nucleic acid-protein interactions in storage and transmission of information both within living cells and from generation to generation of cells (3) The suspected role of DNA in information storage and the development of new concepts of the coding mechanism in DNA that may lead to a universal biological theory embracing evolutionary, as well as homeostatic, adaptation to environment and learned behavioral systems With the essential biochemical constituents of life and the mechanism of replication beginning to be understood, the challenge for the synthesis of living matter by abiogenic experimental techniques has become to many scientists the ultimate goal of the scientific era. NASA has established an exobiology laboratory at Ames Research Center in addition to the sizable support of research at various academic centers of excellence for the continuation of abiogenic synthesis. Although research on organochemical evolution is in its infancy, the data from relatively few experiments have already created an immense enthusiasm for knowledge of the biochemical pathways of evolution. This kind of research will ultimately elucidate the terrestrial evolution of life and, perhaps, the nature of life on other planetary bodies and the distribution of life in our galaxy. This program, with its vast demands on the scientific community at large, is coordinated with related endeavors of a number of Federal agencies. It is allied with certain biochemical studies at the National Institutes of Health for the eventual elucidation of the dynamic pathways in cosmochemical synthesis of life’s essential biochemical constituents. METEORITES AND ORGANIC GEOCHEMISTRY Meteorites A significant area of exobiological research is the investigation of a special class of stony meteorites known as "carbonaceous chondrites." It is increasingly apparent that almost all life-detection concepts rely on the eventual analysis of the solid materials that may be available on Mars and other planetary surfaces. Cosmic dust and meteorites are two classes of material bodies that reach the Earth from outer space. The carbonaceous chondrites are the only extraterrestrial materials known to contain organic carbon. The study of meteorites has generated an astonishing diversity of hypotheses. There is agreement at only one point: that meteorites are preserved chunks of very ancient, perhaps primordial, planetary matter and that when we are able to understand the curious structures and chemical and isotopic variations in the meteorites, we will also know a great deal about early planetary (and perhaps preplanetary) history.