A strand of RNA just 45 nucleotides long has been discovered to perform two key reactions required for self-replication. The molecule, which is a kind of RNA enzyme, offers a tantalising clue towards ...

In May 1952, Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling captured Photo 51, a crucial X-ray diffraction image revealing DNA's ...

A DNA nano-harvester stays on its track inside tumor cells, measuring cancer aggressiveness by detecting a key microRNA ...

Researchers at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge have discovered a ribozyme that is shockingly small, yet ...

One of the greatest mysteries of our planet is how a soup of lifeless chemicals transformed into the first living cell. There are several competing theories about where this happened, from frozen ...

These random molecules were fed a collection of three-base-long RNAs, each linked to a chemical tag. The idea was that if a molecule is capable of ligating one of these short RNA fragments to itself, ...

Life may have begun when RNA molecules began to replicate themselves, and now we’ve finally found an RNA molecule that is very close to being able to do this ...

DNA, the blueprint of life, is best known for its fundamental role as genetic material—storing and transmitting biological information through the precise sequence of its bases. For decades, this ...

Researchers have identified a molecular brake that limits DNA replication in healthy cells, revealing how cells prevent a long-suspected replication catastrophe and pointing to a potential ...

Scientists are exploring how DNA’s physical structure can store vast amounts of data and encode secure information.

Since the computer age began, storing and securing escalating data volumes has been a headache. But that problem could ...