BBC Inside Science Does new science get us closer to finding out how life on earth began?
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Feb 26, 2026 
Michael Wooldridge, Oxford computer science professor and Faraday Prize lecturer, talks about why current AI favors plausibility over truth and the roots of hallucinations. Philip Ball, science writer specializing in chemistry and origins of life, explains tiny self-replicating RNAs and what they mean for origin theories. Short, clear conversations on AI limits and RNA clues to life’s beginnings.
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Small RNA Replicators Narrow The Origins Gap
- Finding a tiny self-replicating RNA shows replication can occur with much smaller molecules than previously used in origin-of-life experiments.
- Philip Ball explains researchers used in vitro evolution to iteratively select and shorten RNA until a minimal 45-unit replicator emerged in Cambridge lab tests.
Find Minimal Molecules With In Vitro Evolution
- Use in vitro evolution to discover minimal functional molecules by starting with random pools and iterating selection and mutation.
- Researchers selected RNAs that showed copying activity, extracted them, mutated and repeated until the shortest effective sequence appeared.
Replication Alone Does Not Make Life
- A tiny replicating RNA is not the same as life; major gaps remain like energy sourcing and metabolism development.
- Ball stresses spontaneous formation of a 45-unit RNA is hard to explain and replication alone doesn't create cells or metabolism.