The biochemist Sidney W. Fox is best known for his research on thermal polymerization . Polymerization is a chemical process by which molecules of different elements are combined into more complex structures. Fox has studied such polymerization processes under conditions similar to those thought to have reigned on earth before the advent of life. His work, though highly controversial, may shed light on the chemistry of the origins of life.

Sidney Walter Fox was born in Los Angeles, California, on March 24, 1912, to Jacob and Louise (Burmon) Fox. His lifetime of interest in the principles of life began at the age of twelve, reading biology texts in San Diego's Balboa Park, where he spent his summers with his father. It was this early exposure, he would later recall, that inspired him to take up the study of chemistry. He enrolled at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles and...