🚀 go-pugleaf

     "Seven Clues to the Origin of Life" may be more accessible to the 
casual reader.  "Genetic Takover" is definitely more rigorous.
     I apologize for the abstruse "RNA world" comment.  It had nothing to 
do with the book per se.  While the "genetic takeover" hypothesis is 
interesting, a variety of recent research suggests that a self-contained metabolism using nucleic acids as both information-carriers and catalysts
could have evolved de novo.  This hypothesis has been loosely referred to 
as the "RNA world".  To the extent that the "RNA world" was self-organizing, a "genetic takeover" is logically unnecessary.  Nevertheless, it still may have happened as Cairns-Smith envisions; it is difficult to pin down the events of 4 bya (although we're trying).        

Dept. Mol. Biol.
Mass. General Hospital
Non-woof