In the past, alchemists were famous for manipulating chemicals to form unique substances in their search for ultimate wisdom and immortality. Immortality may not be the goal for Mike Russell at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories, but his work does focus on some of the most basic elements of life. Under carefully controlled conditions, he hopes to recreate the origin of life on Earth by focusing on the ‘metabolism first’ model. Russell’s work, funded through the Astrobiology Program at NASA, was recently featured in the journal Nature.