Umm, pond scum. I feel like Homer hovering over a donut.
Pond scum is always a good one, since it is already composed of living organisms.
But it makes an excellent analogy, yes?
There are so many hypotheses of abiogenesis. I love them all. Each has an appeal. Though sea vents seem to provide a powerfully viable platform, many versions of the pond scum analogy are also strongly viable. Little pools of chemistry, many only a few cm in extent. Scattered by the trillions all over the slowly cooling planet for millions of years. Constantly wetting and drying, building up, if not a scummy foam, at least a concentrated brew of ions and the natural, normal, Miller–Urey mix of chemical sludge. Pond scum.
There certainly are chemical probabilities in each. I’m thinking, however, that the numbers of events over the eons of cooling would be key. Trillions of petri dishes in shallow pools across the globe versus a few billion undersea vents. I’m partial to pond scum.
As for the evolution of sex, well, when I was 12 there was this girl …
Eschew obfuscation. Habituate elucidation.