Who is Thomas Cech? Thomas Cech and Sidney Altman won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1989! These guys discovered that RNA in living cells is not only a molecule of heredity but also can function as a biocatalyst! They showed that RNA had an actual active role in the synthesis of proteins. This discovery, came as a complete shock to scientists at the time and really ticked off all the editors at the text book companies. :)
In the video below Dr. Thomas Cech dicusses RNA, its characteristics, and its ability to act as an enzyme. Enjoy!
If you'd like to see more of Dr. Cech you can watch his 1995 lecture here. Warning, this material is the latest and greatest from 1995 so take it with a historical grain of salt!
1995: The Double Life of RNA - Lecture (1 hour total)
hahahaha Campbell's primordial soup?
More TOM! I was going to stop here, but what the heck here's some more Tom Cech!
This lecture is called "RNA - Catalysts, Chemical and Biochemical" once again 1995. Remember parts of this might no longer be true! Check out that 95' era sweater with the white turtle neck! hahaha I was guilty of that!
In this last video Tom gives a great reasoning for why nature placed DNA in a double helix rather than in a single strand like RNA.
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