Overall, it should be clear that the only feasible reaction pathway leading to the ribonucleoside emerging from our computations is the S N 2 pathway, involving α-ribofuranosyl phosphate. The overall energetic span of the protonation -dissociation -S N 2 pathway, starting from the original, protonated ribose, effectively amounts to a mere 12-13 kcal/mol with an electric field strength of ±0.3 V Å -1 in the worst case situation (cf. Fig. ), suggesting reaction rates that would easily result in detectable concentrations of the experimentally observed ribonucleoside on the typical timescale of microdroplet experiments (100s of µs up to a couple of ms). -33.9