RNA hit prime time during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the average American waiting in line for their shot knew that the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna were made using mRNA. But while RNA ...
Oceans churned with lava. Air filled thick with smoke. Asteroids stormed down incessantly. Life during the Hadean Eon four billion years ago was a struggle, and yet that was when it began. 1,2 With no ...
About 95 % of human genes can produce different RNAs through a process called 'alternative splicing'. If you have ever read about cells, genes or DNA, you must have heard about RNA also. Chemically, ...
The Catalyst: RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life’s Deepest Secrets. Thomas Cech. W.W. Norton; 304 pages; $28.99 and £23.99 All this is the subject of Thomas Cech’s new book, “The Catalyst”. The author ...
In the study of bacteria, a longstanding dogma has held that two molecular machines—RNA polymerase, which leads the way in ...
Scientists at the University of Nottingham have developed a technique to analyze the atomic-level structure of RNA molecules with exceptional precision and speed, and are the first in the world to use ...
RNA is thought to have sparked the origin of life by self-copying. Researchers have now revealed the atomic structure of an 'RNA copy machine' through cryo-EM. This breakthrough sheds light on a ...
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. For a molecule of RNA, the world is a dangerous place. Unlike DNA, which can persist for millions of years in its remarkably stable, ...
Strange "chimeric" RNA once thought to be the product of cancer is actually an important controller of women's health, ...