Proteinoid

Proteinoids also referred to as thermal proteins, thermal polymers of amino acids or thermal heterocomplex molecules from amino acids are protein-like, aggregates formed abiotically by amino acids, nucleic acids and inorganic compounds. Sidney Fox developed a pioneering work in the thermal synthesis of polypeptides. Fox heated dry mixtures of 16 to 18 amino acids at 160-180º in a nitrogen atmosphere for a time period of several hours. He noticed that the amino acids joined together by the loss of water molecules. Fox named the products resulting from his synthesis "proteinoids". If proteinoids are dissolved in boiling water and the the solution is cooled the proteinoid molecules will coalesce to form microspheres. The theory of abiogenesis proposed by Sidney Fox in the '60s, and who does not find many followers in the scientific community nowadays, stated that the agglomeration of proteinoid microspheres would have given rise to the precursors of the first living cells. Fox claimed that his proteinoid microspheres constitute protocells which were a vital link between the primordial chemical environment and true living cells.

Comparison between true proteins and proteinoids
Spontaneous combinations of biomonomers may lead to proteinlike substances called proteinoids. Proteinoids are not fully functioning proteins. They show catalitic ability, albeit extremely weak. As Wysong describes very well comparatively:

Fox argues that the proteinoids he has formed have "qualitatively virtually all of the properties of contemporary protein." This may be true, but so does a junkyard by the presence of iron, glass, plastic and chrome have the "qualities" of an automobile;

The following table illustrates some of the major differences: