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The Problem With Serendipity: It's Not Always Memorable

Jan 11, 2007

MIT is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking RNA research conducted by biophysicist Alexander Rich. According to the news clip, Rich announced in 1956 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society that single strands of RNA can spontaneously join together to form double-stranded molecules. Despite the seemingly memorable occasion, Rich, who made the discovery by mixing two strands of RNA together, can’t quite recall how it all came together. "I've asked my colleagues and searched through my memory, and I don't actually know," he's quoted as saying.

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