Unfortunately, scientists have failed to find evidence of this “first replicator” or recreate the replication process in the lab under the conditions that conceivably would have been present on the planet billions of years ago. In a new study, using three-letter “triplet” RNA, scientists induced RNA replication by preventing the RNA double helix from zipping together. It’s a question that has lit fires of curiosity in philosophers, theologians, and more recently (at least, historically speaking) scientists for millennia. Published in the journal , a team of UCL scientists (along with experts from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge) used three-letter “triplet” RNA building blocks subjected to acid and heat in water. After the scientists thawed the solution and and made adjustments to pH and temperature, the RNA replicated again and again.