New Scientist Weighs in on the Origin of Life

This week's issue of New Scientist contains an interesting article bearing the headline "First Life: The Search for the First Replicator." As a means to circumvent the chicken-and-egg problem pertinent to the relationship of DNA and proteins, author Michael Marshall attempts to revive the fashionable (but scientifically bankrupt) scenario of an RNA world.

In brief, RNA exhibits both information-carrying capacity and catalytic activity. Arguments for the RNA world include the fact that RNA...