Scientists on their quest to find the origin of life have stared into the primordial soup, trying to answer the ultimate chicken-and-egg question: Which came first, the genetic code or the proteins ...

Researchers are embarking on the RNA equivalent of the Human Genome Project, including sequencing all the chemical ...

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 ...

How was complex life able to develop on the inhospitable early Earth? At the beginning there must have been ribonucleic acid (RNA) to carry the first genetic information. To build up complexity in ...

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, ...

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 ...

RNA-based medicine is about to take a huge leap forward thanks to the discovery of extremely short RNA fragments with important anti-inflammatory ...

QIMR Berghofer scientists have discovered a cancer-fighting RNA molecule that could hold the key to a new way of treating the ...

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, ...

The chemical structure of uracil, showing its single-ring pyrimidine structure. Uracil forms hydrogen bonds with adenine in RNA, contributing to the molecule's structure and function. (Image: Public ...