In living organisms today, complex molecules like RNA and DNA are constructed with the help of enzymes. So how did these molecules form before life (and enzymes) existed? Why did some molecules end up ...

Life may have first emerged in deep sea thermal vents or surface hot springs (Yellowstone National Park’s Grand Prismatic Spring is shown here). New research shows how high-energy thioesters could ...

For the first time, researchers have successfully extracted and decoded RNA from an extinct animal. The thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger, was a wolflike marsupial that went extinct after ...

National University of Singapore (NUS) researchers have devised a method to safely and temporarily "switch off" and then "turn on" ribonucleic acid (RNA) inside cells. This is achieved using ...

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 ...

When cells expire, they leave behind an activity log of sorts: RNA expelled into blood plasma that reveals changes in gene expression, cellular signaling, tissue injury and other biological processes.