This is an exciting discovery for chemists, biologists and
microbiologists alike. It's a great read. John D. Sutherland, a
chemist at the University of Manchester, has solved a problem
that for 20 years has thwarted researchers trying to understand
the origin of life — how the building blocks of RNA, called
nucleotides, could have spontaneously assembled themselves in
the conditions of the primitive earth. The discovery, if
correct, should set researchers on the right track to solving
many other mysteries about the origin of life. It will also mean
that for the first time a plausible explanation exists for how
an information-carrying biological molecule could have emerged
through natural processes from chemicals on the primitive earth.