Yesterday’s heresy is tomorrow’s dogma. People around the world once believed Earth was the center of the universe. Even the phrase “solar system” would have sounded heretical. Today, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor Thomas Gingeras is putting forward another bit of scientific heresy.
“You might think of the gene as being the RNA instead of DNA,” Gingeras says at the close of our latest Cocktails & Chromosomes talk. If that seems to contradict everything you’ve ever heard about genetics, well, get in line. Of course, this notion isn’t coming out of nowhere. Professor Gingeras has devoted his career to better understanding the fundamental mechanisms of life. And he has in the past put forward other ideas about DNA and RNA that were considered outrageous, only to be proven right in time.
Press play to see how Professor Gingeras arrived at this radical concept. And be sure to register for the next Cocktails & Chromosomes talk on June 26. CSHL postdoc Bryan Gitschlag will discuss the cell as a place of community and betrayal and what that means for our understanding of health and disease.