Self replicating chemistry

Here's a story that interested me, Biologists at Cambridge University have created a (substantially) self replicating molecule of RNA. The molecule was derived from a process not unlike natural selection whereby the team doing the work made a vast library of thousands of different versions of the molecule until they happened upon one that worked better than any other; it replicated itself without the need for any other molecules helping. RNA is like DNA and can store genetic information like DNA. Some viruses contain RNA instead of DNA and it performs a similar job, however until now a simple molecule which behaves like this has proved elusive.

One possible starting point for all life on our planet is a simple self-replicating molecule like this. We already know that our universe is crammed full of the building blocks of such molecules and so a good understanding of the chemistry involved in instantiating such a molecule and then how that might become more complex over time (with the help of some form of selection pressure) eventually lead to something sufficiently complex that we would deem it "alive", is a tantalising possibility.