I love the RNA world hypothesis, I love the idea that DNA is an iteration on RNA optimised for stable data storage, that proteins are and iteration on RNA optimised to be better enzymes and structures and that mediating between the two we still have to transcribe data to the legacy RNA data format, and use the legacy RNA enzyme ribosomes to translate this through to amino acid sequences.
The idea the RNA metabolisms might have evolved in small cavities in hydrothermal vents also makes it easy to imagine communities of cooperating molecules in an enclosed area needing to defend themselves from free-loading virus molecules, setting up the ongoing conflict between cells and viruses right from the beginning, and also a dynamic in which viruses are both destructive and an important source of novelty
The idea the RNA metabolisms might have evolved in small cavities in hydrothermal vents also makes it easy to imagine communities of cooperating molecules in an enclosed area needing to defend themselves from free-loading virus molecules, setting up the ongoing conflict between cells and viruses right from the beginning, and also a dynamic in which viruses are both destructive and an important source of novelty