Dawkins doesn't call crystal structures alive, but he does mention them as a potential hypothetical source for life. http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20160823-

Dawkins doesn't call crystal structures alive, but he does mention them as a potential hypothetical source for life. http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20160823-the-idea-that-life-began-as-clay-crystals-is-50-years-old http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20160823-the-idea-that-life... > Cairns-Smith found a more eager audience in science journalists and the popular press. Other scientists showed interest, too: the evolutionary biologist and writer Richard Dawkins discussed the crystals-as-genes hypothesis in his 1986 book The Blind Watchmaker. [...] > His aim was to find a system much simpler than modern life, but which had some of the crucial properties of a living system. He found an answer in an unlikely place: clays.