The first step when exploring any new chemical reaction is to determine the conditions required for the reaction to work. The next step is to figure out what products are formed and in what quantities. Based on this information we can make an estimate of the reaction yield and begin to ascertain if this is a steady-state yield, or whether it would change further if the reaction were given more time to progress. For some applications, this extent of investigation, along with some work-up strategy, would be sufficient. For prebiotic chemistry, however, we want to translate the laboratory results to a natural environment.