Life arose when nature put molecules together in specific ways. They are trying to figure out how nature did it. That is an extremely difficult task, but some progress has been achieved.
Like I said, you won’t get this sort of info from James Tour. If you want to follow progress on their various efforts, find their papers and read.
For example, Krishnamurty, Greg Springsteen and other co-workers have been able to nonenzymatically synthesize alpha-ketoacid analogues to the alpha-ketoacid intermediates of the reverse citric acid cycle (r-TCA). This non-enzymatic r-TCA further synthesized alanine and glutamine via transamination reactions.
Of course, no one knows if nature did it this way, but it is a likely route. Similarly, when a patient gets diagnosed with cancer, the oncologist would never be able to determine exactly how the patient’s tumor started, but thanks to decades of research, possible pathways leading to tumorigenesis that have been experimentally determined and the doctor can say it was any of such pathways by examining the special conditions of the patient (say history of smoking). This is the goal of chemists like Springsteen and Krishnamurty with regards to the OoL.
Protein folding researchers like Ken Dill have not been able to “check off” all the mechanisms leading to protein folding, but does it mean you can’t follow up their research?
Even creationists like Jeanson have not checked off all the numerous problems plaguing their “research”, but you hang on to most of what they say, just because they agree with your religious ideology. Worse still, people like Jeanson are not experts on many of the issues they try to refute and of course they make serious mistakes in doing so. I would go with @Joe_Felsenstein or @Herman_Mays anytime on issues relating to population genetics than Jeanson, because they do the hardworking necessary to validating any models or hypotheses they propose. Take a cue from me.