The central dogma of biology requires the presence of DNA, RNA, and proteins. Because it’s unlikely that all three of these sprang forth at the exact same time from the primordial stew, a hypothesis arose in the early 1960s—formulated independently by the ubiquitous Francis Crick and others—that there was a simpler precursor system. Crick’s hypothesis was that, early on in the history of earth, RNA was able to replicate itself. That leaves the question of where the first RNA came from. Some
