Prebiotic synthesis of amino acids, nucleobases, lipids, and other building blocks of protocells and metabolisms is still poorly understood. Proposed reactions that produce individual components such as the Strecker synthesis of amino acids, the formose reaction for the production of sugars, and prebiotic syntheses for the production of nucleobases. These syntheses often rely on different starting reagents, different conditions (temperature, pH, catalysts, etc.), and often will interfere with each other. These challenges have made determining the conditions for the origin of life difficult. Researchers have turned to systems chemistry type approaches to help overcome some of these challenges. Systems chemistry approaches form multiple products form a single synthesis under the same conditions and tend to be more similar to biological processes in that they have emergent properties, self-organization, and autocatalysis. Cyanosulfidic prebiotic synthesis is a systems chemistry approach.