A ribozyme found by accident selectively repairs broken RNA, suggesting early life could have preserved its genetic code ...

Your DNA is continually damaged by sources both inside and outside your body. One especially severe form of damage called a double-strand break involves the severing of both strands of the DNA double ...

CRISPR’s rise from obscure bacterial defense system to molecular scalpel has always hinged on one small component: the guide RNA. For years, that guide RNA—meticulously designed, modified, and ...

Caltech researchers have identified a novel chemical reaction that could explain the formation of the building blocks of DNA and RNA, the molecules that encode all of life's functions. The work is an ...

Chemists at UCL and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology have demonstrated how RNA (ribonucleic acid) might have replicated itself on early Earth—a key process in the origin of life. Scientists ...

As antibiotic-resistant infections rise and are projected to cause up to 10 million deaths per year by 2050, scientists are looking to bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, as an alternative.

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 ...

Sunburn has traditionally been attributed to UV-induced DNA damage. However, a new study reveals that RNA, another vital cellular molecule, plays a major role in triggering acute sunburn reactions.

Chemists at UCL and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology have demonstrated how RNA (ribonucleic acid) might have replicated itself on early Earth – a key process in the origin of life. Scientists ...