DEVELOPING NEW SYNTHETIC CATALYSTS - HOW NATURE DOES IT

Paleomolecular biochemistry is a new field of science that seeks to un derstand how life emerged and developed in interaction with its geophy sical surroundings. It is an experimental science, involving reconstru ction of extinct biomolecules in the laboratory, studying their proper ties in the laboratory, and inferring details of their behavior and fu nction in the context of geological data. An outline is provided of so me tools of this field, together with its application to the study of two specific systems, ribonuclease and alcohol dehydrogenase.