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 ...

Thomas Gingeras did not intend to upend basic ideas about how the human body works. In 2012 the geneticist, now at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York State, was one of a few hundred colleagues ...

Researchers identify a shared RNA-protein interaction that could lead to broad-spectrum antiviral treatments for enteroviruses ...

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 ...

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 ...

Stanford Medicine researchers have developed a blood test capable of detecting cancers, the ways cancer resists treatments and tissue injury caused by non-cancerous conditions. The new test analyzes ...

How does a cell know when it’s been damaged? A molecular alarm, set off by mutated RNA and colliding ribosomes, signals danger. When the sun shines on your skin, what does it hit? When it causes a ...

Israeli scientists have made a new breakthrough in the study of tiny, resilient organisms called hyperthermophiles — which have learned to survive in some of the earth’s hottest places, such as ...