History
The phrase "RNA World" was first used by Nobel laureate Walter Gilbert in 1986, in a commentary on recent observations of the catalytic properties of various forms of RNA. However, the concept of RNA as a primordial molecule is older and can be found in papers by Francis Crick and Leslie Orgel, as well as in Woese's 1967 book The Genetic Code. In 1962 the molecular biologist Alexander Rich, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had posited much the same idea in an article he contributed to a volume issued in honor of Nobel-laureate physiologist Albert Szent-Györgyi.
Read more about this topic: RNA World Hypothesis
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