In the early 1980s, Sidney Altman discovered that ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules can act as enzymes. This disclosure, independently and concurrently made by Thomas R. Cech of the University of Colorado, broadened our understanding of the origins of life. Before this discovery, it was believed that all enzymes were made of protein and that primitive cells, therefore, used proteins to catalyze biochemical processes. Now it appears that RNA may have acted as a catalyst. Altman and Cech's work has not only had a "conceptual influence on basic natural sciences," according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, but in addition, "the discovery of catalytic RNA will probably provide a new tool for gene technology, with potential to create a new defense against viral infections." As a result of their findings, Altman and Cech were jointly awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize for chemistry.

Altman was born in Montreal, Quebec, on...