An RNA mystery and its denouement

My graduate student Regina Vidaver and I published the first article in the second issue of RNA in April 1995. Our paper reported a surprising property of human U6 RNA that provides insight into mechanisms for modulating the stability of RNA–RNA complexes. That article represents the mid-point in my career in RNA science so far. Below I describe what led up to that article, and very briefly consider how things have changed since it was published.