According to the RNA world hypothesis, life began when RNA molecules evolved the ability to make more copies of themselves. Now we have discovered an RNA molecule that is almost capable of this – it ...

Comparison of a single-stranded RNA and a double-stranded DNA with their corresponding nucleobases. (Image: Wikimedia Commons, CC SA 3.0) The most common type of base pairing is the Watson-Crick base ...

A new system created by researchers at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University and MIT may help unlock that potential, as reported in Nature Communications. The team, working in the lab of Wyss Core ...

Hundreds of DNA strands, or "legs" are allowed to bind to the sphere. These DNA legs are placed on a glass slide coated with the reactant RNA, the motor's fuel. The DNA legs are drawn to the RNA, but ...

Cells contain machinery that duplicates DNA into a new set that goes into a newly formed cell. That same class of machines, called polymerases, also build RNA messages, which are like notes copied ...

We’re celebrating 180 years of Scientific American. Explore our legacy of discovery and look ahead to the future. In 1957, just four years after Francis Crick and other scientists solved the riddle of ...