Spoiler: it's really hard...
James Tour goes into how hard it is to get just D-ribose synthesized in early earth conditions, a dozen steps or more, and you just get racemic ribose at about 6% yield. Then you need to stop the reaction, otherwise it all degrades in a couple of years (a blink of an eye in abiogenesis). Then you need to purify it, then you need to hook them together (there's a huge number of ways to hook them together, and only one of them is the desired product).
Blessings,
Lee
James Tour goes into how hard it is to get just D-ribose synthesized in early earth conditions, a dozen steps or more, and you just get racemic ribose at about 6% yield. Then you need to stop the reaction, otherwise it all degrades in a couple of years (a blink of an eye in abiogenesis). Then you need to purify it, then you need to hook them together (there's a huge number of ways to hook them together, and only one of them is the desired product).
Blessings,
Lee
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