RNA - The Mother of All Molecules

I recently went to a lecture hosted by the CFI of Indianapolis by May Khanna, entitled "RNA: Darwin's favorite molecule (had he known about it!)" She talked about how RNA could have formed from a primordial soup of simple organic molecules. Up until recently, how RNA could form from simple organic molecules and go through synthesis, to become what we now know as RNA. This last year, two biochemists (who won the Nobel Prize for their work) figured it out. The main problem was chemists couldn't figure out how to get a sugar to correctly attach itself to an organic base. Rather than going through the 'logical' steps, as chemists had up until this point, they went in a slightly more round-about way, and their method has proven repeatable on several instances.

She also went on to discuss the possibility that RNA was the evolutionary precursor to BOTH DNA and proteins. Up until the early '90's it was thought that proteins were the genetic precursor to RNA and DNA, and it is still being debated amongst scientists as to what really came first, but more and more evidence is showing the likelihood of RNA being the 'Mother of all Molecules.'

I loved her lecture, because she took something that was very technical, and simplified it to a point where the lay-person (like myself) could understand it, but there were also other bio-chemists in the audience who asked the more technical questions.