A 45-Nucleotide RNA That Copies Itself: The Origin-of-Life Paper That Went Viral

A new Science paper reports the discovery of a simple RNA molecule that can perfectly replicate itself — a finding that may be the most significant step toward understanding the origin of life in decades, and it has nothing to do with AI.

In a research landscape dominated by AI, the most talked-about paper of the week has nothing to do with neural networks. As Stanford professor @JSheltzer highlighted in a viral post, a new paper in Science reports the discovery of a 45-nucleotide RNA molecule that can perfectly copy itself. "AI is cool and all," Sheltzer wrote, "but a new paper in @ScienceMagazine kind of figured out the origin of life?"

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