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Essay
Nature 434, 705 (7 April 2005) | doi:10.1038/434705a; Published online 6 April 2005
Concept Stirring the primordial soup
William R. Taylor1
- William R. Taylor is in the Division of Mathematical Biology, National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, UK.
It is now widely believed that almost four billion years ago, before the first living cells, life consisted of assemblies of self-reproducing macromolecules. The molecular candidate thought to mediate this activity was RNA, which can combine the necessary properties of encoding information and catalysing chemical reactions — functions that are now fulfilled largely by DNA and proteins, respectively.
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