Researchers are building up a base of information that could help them understand which random conditions might have needed to occur in various pools or pores and then combined. But we're nowhere near that point just yet, says CNN's John Sutter. This work feels consistent with the idea that if these researchers do finally succeed and make life from scratch, they will have made life from scratch on Earth. If it's so easy that even the descendants of a caveman can do it, then it's probably happened in a lot of different places in the universe.