The Catalyst: RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life's Deepest Secrets

Ribosomes from bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes (the three domains of life on Earth) differ in their size, sequence, structure, and the ratio of protein to RNA.

By decoding, I mean that molecules within a cell read certain sections of the genetic code, like musicians in an orchestra reading their parts of a musical score—the cell’s individual song—thereby enabling a gene’s instructions to become physically manifest in the actual protein.

The original version, the one shown in Equation 4.1, is based on the existence of a prebiotic form of RNA capable of self-replication, a sr-RNA.

One of the fundamental messages of this book is that we cannot properly understand how life works through analogies or metaphorical comparison with any technology that humans have ever invented (so far). Such analogies may provide a foothold for our understanding, but in the end they will fall short, and will constrain and even mislead us if we don

Tatum pelted colonies of E. coli with enough X-rays to kill 9,999 of every 10,000 bacteria. Among the few survivors he discovered mutants that could grow only if he supplied them with a particular amino acid. Helped along, the mutants could even reproduce, and their offspring were just as crippled. Tatum had gotten the same results as he had with b