No known molecule, including DNA, RNA, and proteins, can replicate itself; dozens of specific proteins are required to replicate a small bacterial genome. DNA, however long it is and however many genes it can encode, is nothing without the molecular machineries to decode (that is, to transcribe and translate) its encoded genes. Amazingly, each of the three domains of life (bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes) has its own unique way of replicating its genome, defining whether a piece of DNA is a gene or not, whether an RNA is protein-coding or not, and where transcription or translation should start and end. This creates unbridgeable gaps in between bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes and, thus, challenges the popular belief that life came from non-life naturally and that all organisms are connected via a big evolutionary tree of life.