One day we may think we know. My number one requirement is the membrane boundary enclosure that creates inside and outside. This ionic activity of and polarity of water molecules and all the acid-base reactions, with other compounds. Simulations of outer and inner abstractions have been done. Molecules like fats spontaneously form membranes to hide their water repulsive parts in the middle. The bi-lipid membrane is what partitions thermodynamics. Life is the magic Maxwell daemon, across a container boundary. This the interior structural wonders and combinatorial variety of the chaining of several common elements with low atomic number and abundance, with energy relationship thresholds between all their forms, that define a potentials of complex equilibrium phase space. Without mentioning a confined volume with a membrane their is no life.