Concept 26 RNA was the first genetic molecule.

Harold Urey lecturing to a class in the '50s. It was at a lecture like this that Stanley Miller first heard about the idea of synthesizing organic molecules in a pre-biotic world.

Harold Urey examining results, 1950.

Apparatus used by Stanley Miller in the synthesis of organic molecules.

Stanley Miller, 1997.

Thomas Cech, 1998. Cech became president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute on January 1, 2000.

Sidney Altmann, 1989.

Sidney Altmann with one of his graduate students, 1990.

Although some RNA can self-splice, most RNA is spliced by protein complexes called spliceosomes. The mechanics of the reaction differ slightly, but the end result is the same. Introns are recognized and spliced out of the mRNA sequence.

Although Tetrahymena RNA can splice itself, it cannot splice adenovirus RNA. Why not?

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Harold Urey lecturing to a class in the '50s. It was at a lecture like this that Stanley Miller first heard about the idea of synthesizing organic molecules in a pre-biotic world.