Before we begin : a voluntary chapter -- Framing the problem : the buffalo and the bacterium -- The big tree : no jackalopes please -- A dance of atoms -- Allegro agitato : the origin of life -- The winds that blow through the starry ways -- Tornados in a junkyard -- Between genomes and creatures -- A thumbnail molecular biology -- RNA structure : a tape with a shape -- Intimations of an RNA world -- The experimentally impaired sciences -- Test tube RNA evolution : first light -- Selection amplification : interrogating RNA's possibilities -- RNA duplication : replicase activity in real RNAs -- RNA capabilities and the origins of translation -- The quest for the peptidyl transferase -- A language much older than hieroglyphics : the genetic code -- Assume a spherical cow : the ribocyte -- The future of the RNA world.