Ribosomes are the components of cells that read RNA and build proteins. Without the ribosome, the chemistry of life would still be catalyzed by raw RNA. And yet the origin of the ribosome remains a mystery. In a Perspective published in PNAS Nexus, Michael Lynch and Andrew Ellington note that the ribosome, which creates all cellular proteins, is itself composed of multiple proteins. How, then, did the ribosome first come to be?