“There is something rather than nothing because something is more stable”, wrote Victor Stenger about the universe [1]. The same applies to the origin of life; but what sort of something, and where? Thermodynamics and life itself are the surest guides. Thermodynamics, because life is more stable than non-life only under certain farfrom-equilibrium conditions. Life, because the best explanation for the appearance of appropriate catalysts, whether enzymes or ribozymes, is selection, as noted by de Duve [2]. Catalysts can be selected only if they fit into protometabolism, predicting congruence between prebiotic conditions and biochemical pathways. Research on the origin of life has been marred by deep historical rifts. Genes first or metabolism first? Panspermia or terrestrial origins? Autotrophic origins in vents or heterotrophic origins in soup? Much fine experimental work has been done, but the gaps between laboratory chemistry, geological environments, and real biochemistry in living cells are still great. Closing those gaps is the task at hand, and we might be surprisingly close. All free-living cells combine six properties – carbon capture, energy transduction, heredity, metabolism, compartmentalisation and excretion. It is doubtful whether any of these traits is much use in isolation: life originated in a thermodynamic system capable of focusing abiotic equivalents of all six living processes. To my knowledge, the only system capable of doing that is a specific type of submarine hydrothermal vent, occupied by hot alkaline solutions rich in H2, accompanied by minor bisulfide and ammonia. This kind of system is maintained in disequilibrium by spontaneously precipitated inorganic osmotic barriers containing catalytic Fe( Ni Mo)S minerals separating the alkaline solution from the ambient CO2-bearing mildly acidic ocean. The juxtaposition of fluids on either side of these barriers imposes steep redox, proton and thermal gradients. These natural electrochemical reactors have been postulated as the ideal incubators of life by Russell and colleagues for two decades [3,4]; and the discovery of a modern analogue at Lost City, just over a decade ago, provided powerful support [5,6]. Remarkably, thermodynamic calculations under mild alkaline hydrothermal conditions indicate that the synthesis of all cellular materials, including amino acids, bases, sugars and lipids, is exergonic from H2 and CO2 between 50 ◦C and 125 ◦C [7]. What has been missing from this scenario is extensive experimental work. Russell himself has built a hydrothermal reactor and is exploring the geochemical origins of biochemistry [8,9]; and others, notably Braun and colleagues in Munich, have made headway on the origins of replication via thermal cycling [10]. But a detailed chemical simulation of autotrophic origins under warm alkaline conditions is missing. The next best thing, an impressive body of experimental work, is reported in this issue of Physics of Life Reviews by Di Mauro and colleagues in Rome [11].