Life on Earth may have started with a molecule that still runs our cells today. As researchers probe ribonucleic acid in the ...

40,000-year-old RNA from permafrost-preserved tissue was recovered from a mammoth specimen known as Yuka. Molecular evidence from Yuka revealed a correction to the original assumption about Yuka’s sex ...

How does a cell know when it’s been damaged? A molecular alarm, set off by mutated RNA and colliding ribosomes, signals danger. When the sun shines on your skin, what does it hit? When it causes a ...

Sean Ryder, professor at UMass Chan Medical School, has written a book to delve the mysteries of ribonucleic acid as a tool to fight diseases. Messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA, is in the public ...

QIMR Berghofer scientists have discovered a cancer-fighting RNA molecule that could hold the key to a new way of treating the most common form of breast cancer. The team are developing their findings ...

Researchers find obelisks, mysterious RNA molecules in human bacteria that challenge our understanding of viruses and microscopic life.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their ...

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 ...