The Conversation

RNA has newly identified role: Repairing serious DNA damage to maintain the genome

Your DNA is continually damaged by sources both inside and outside your body. One especially severe form of damage called a double-strand break involves the severing of both strands of the DNA double ...
The New York Times

The Long-Overlooked Molecule That Will Define a Generation of Science

Dr. Cech is a biochemist and the author of the forthcoming book “The Catalyst: RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life’s Deepest Secrets,” from which this essay is adapted. See more of our coverage in your ...

Captured mid-reaction, RNA polymerase reveals universal blueprint for gene transcription

The enzyme RNA polymerase (RNAP) carries out transcription, copying DNA into RNA. It's the first step in gene expression, and ...
Science Daily

New method uses DNA barcodes for high throughput RNA and protein detection in deep tissue

RNA molecules carry instructions from DNA for making proteins that carry out much of the work of living cells. Knowing where these molecules are located in complex tissues is a critical part of ...
Scientific American

How RNA Unseated DNA as the Most Important Molecule in Your Body

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 ...