from complex sugars to simpler molecules Are they saying they've found non-cell metabolic pathways... but that require cell-created complex sugars as starting

from complex sugars to simpler molecules Are they saying they've found non-cell metabolic pathways... but that require cell-created complex sugars as starting points? OK, so not enough to start life; but filling in each link in the chain (tree?) is important. BTW: some researchers extrapolated life-complexity-over-time backwards, and concluded life is older than Earth. Speculation on speculation! But a fascinating paper: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5552381 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5552381