Ribonucleic acid, also called RNA, is a molecule present in all living cells. It plays a critical role in transmitting genetic instructions from DNA and creating proteins. With the power to execute a ...

The natural RNAi mechanism can be directed by either short interfering RNA (siRNA) or microRNA (miRNA). 1 There are four key steps in the RNAi pathway. When miRNA acts as the guide for RNAi, only a ...

Chemists at University College London have shown how two of biology's most fundamental ingredients, RNA (ribonucleic acid) and amino acids, could have spontaneously joined together at the origin of ...

Inside a lab in the French city of Orleans, scientists are testing out the limits of molecules in our body called messenger RNA—best known for being used in COVID-19 vaccines—in the hopes of finding a ...

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 ...