Non‐enzymatic glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathway‐like reactions in a plausible Archean ocean

Incredible. In essence, more evidence of life forming from non-life. 2,3, or 4 reactions weren't found in these experiments, but 29, forming two biochemical pathways that formed necessary products from metabolic intermediates. It was always discussed that metabolism isn't really possible without RNA, a molecule that can form specific enzymes to catalyze metabolism, but the kicker is that the results of this experiment were shaped without the presence of RNA, but instead were catalyzed by metal ions. Not only does this answer a lot of questions, but it also makes the discourse of abiogenesis a lot more plausible with an important RNA backbone being formed from the Archean conditions. RNA --> metabolism --> life held a lot of problems, but metabolism --> RNA --> life makes a hell of a lot more sense.

Original published study in the journal Molecular Systems Biology here.
Reference: DOI 10.1002/msb.20145228 | Published online 25.04.2014 Molecular Systems Biology (2014) 10: 725