With respect to RNA and amino acids, a nice paper was published by Sutherland and Mullen I think in 2007 in a german chemistry journal, Angewandte Chemie, where they activate ribonucleotides, as well as make amino acid amides.

Years of work making two halves that then could not be joined.

In the so-called RNA world, this versatile molecule acted both like DNA (storing genetic information) and proteins (carrying out chemical reactions, such as building new RNA molecules).

One hypothesized task I’ve seen is that RNA acts to concentrate and activate mono- or diamino acids, which likely preceded it. It is probable that in prebiotic chemistry a little bit of ‘everything’ happened simultaneously.

That is by the way a prediction that this result tests positive for as phospate isn’t just an afterthought but contribute to the result. In the same sense, what is then less promising is that I hear they still had to purify in between steps.

Now I wonder if they could simplify (well, sort of since 4 reactions is really simple) by using glycine instead of ribose as backbone. GNA is a putative pre-RNA compound, doing the same task with an even simpler molecule. Again, perhaps initially both GNA and RNA was in play.

This work has been ongoing for years. The conspiracy theories merely make me laugh, and smells of pathetiscm (even though it’s not a real word I shall use it here). This is a bit like a bomb dropping on the heads of a creationist, metabolist or whatever other theory you believe in.

Give me some hard facts, I’m open minded and ready to be convinced.