We are united in the hope that every individual will someday enjoy at least the intellectual privileges we have had, if not always the material advantages.

The discovery of the first radiochemically pure precursor to a tRNA molecule enabled me to get a job as an assistant professor at Yale University in 1971, a difficult time to get any job at all.

We soon suggested that the RNA subunit of RNase P was part of the active center of the enzyme, by analogy to the then current picture of the ribosome.

The mystique associated with the bomb, the role that scientists played in it, and its general importance could not fail to impress even a six-year old.

Thus, the pathways leading to the discoveries of RNA catalysis were not as direct as one might imagine from reading about the results in textbooks.

This century has already seen too many tyrannies engage in the distortion and destruction of the finest creative impulses of humankind.

The chemical details of catalysis by RNase P remain to be fully worked out although a rough picture of this reaction is now available.

This result explained why the purification, which had been designed to isolate a proteinaceous complex, was so difficult. It also led to much disbelief in the community of enzymologists.

The RNA World referred to an hypothetical stage in the origin of life on Earth.