Atoms Alive

It seems incredible that all life on earth comes from the information held in a single kind of molecule. DNA is an intense molecule that can direct the fantastically complex chemistry of the cell, reproduce itself, and even self-modify to take advantage of new conditions. You could say that all the different forms of life, from earliest to modern, are simply the different disguises of DNA as it has tried out many containers for itself. How is it conceivable that a molecule made of only four types of building blocks can create such sophistication?