Scientists at University College London have recreated a chemical step that may explain how life first emerged nearly four billion years ago.

 

Researchers just recreated a key step in life’s origin!

Scientists at University College London have recreated a chemical step that may explain how life first emerged nearly four billion years ago. In a breakthrough published in Nature, researchers showed how amino acids—the building blocks of proteins—can spontaneously attach to RNA under conditions resembling early Earth. This process, long theorized but never before demonstrated, offers a potential missing link in the origin of life, bridging two competing theories: the “RNA world,” in which RNA carried genetic information and catalyzed reactions, and the “thioester world,” in which high-energy compounds powered early metabolism.

The team achieved this by activating amino acids with thioesters, energy-rich molecules still central to modern biochemistry. Once linked to RNA, these amino acids could then form short chains called peptides—the essential precursors of proteins. Because proteins carry out life’s most fundamental tasks, from metabolism to replication, this discovery highlights a plausible path for how chemistry may have transitioned into biology. While many questions remain—such as how specific RNA sequences first encoded instructions—this research represents a major step toward solving one of science’s most profound mysteries: how non-living molecules sparked the first living systems.

Source: “Thioester-mediated RNA aminoacylation and peptidyl-RNA synthesis in water” by Jyoti Singh et al., Nature, August 27, 2025.