Recently my wife and I were strolling along our beloved lakeshore path along Lake Mendota on the University of Wisconsin campus. We passed a marker that brought back memories. Dr. Howard Temin, who walked this path many times during his tenure as a cancer researcher at McArdle Cancer Research Lab, and who this path is dedicated to, gave a lecture that I attended as a University of Wisconsin undergraduate in a genetics course in 1969.

He discussed his discovery of a novel enzyme he called RNA dependent DNA polymerase. He found this enzyme to be present in tumors of chickens, mice and cats. It broke the cardinal rule of genetics, which is that DNA makes RNA, which makes protein.

The concept of an enzyme that allows RNA to make DNA was revolutionary. He stated that this may be a key to the

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