Amino acids would not polymerize

Claim

Amino acids don't polymerize in a water solution so they could never form polymers in a prebiotic soup.

Although it is true that amino acids do not normally polymerize in a watery solution, they can under specific circumstances. Heat can promote polymerisation and prebiotic Earth had far more volcanic activity than today. Also, rock surfaces could catalyse (make easier) the polymerization of amino acids. According to some research, montmorillonite - a common clay - is a polymerization catalyst.
I'm not sure how reliable this quote is, maybe this should be worked on?
"Cycles of wetting and drying produced by the ocean tides cause stress in the clay that translated into energy. These cycles can link molecules of amino acids together by transferring energy ... . The ions in clay act as catalysts to speed up chemical reactions ... when in the presence of clays some organic molecules can also perform functions like enzymes" -- "Dying Planet" by Jon Erikson, p12, ISBN 0-83067726-7
Amino acids needn't have been the first polymers, RNA looks very likely to have performed this role instead: http://www.origins.rpi.edu/claycatalyzed.html .
Although we don't know exactly how amino acids first polymerized or exactly what form the first life on Earth took, this is no reason to say it was impossible; we just need more research into the topic, as is being done now.
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