Two separate laboratory breakthroughs have produced RNA molecules that can build copies of themselves or assemble functional structures without any help from proteins or DNA. These results offer the ...

Scientists discover QT45, a self-replicating RNA molecule, offering insights into the origins of life on Earth.

There are plenty of unanswered questions about the origin of life on Earth. But the research community has largely reached consensus that one of the key steps was the emergence of an RNA molecule that ...

Scientists on their quest to find the origin of life have stared into the primordial soup, trying to answer the ultimate ...

Although there are striking differences between the cells that make up your eyes, kidneys, brain and toes, the DNA blueprint for these cells is essentially the same. Where do those differences come ...

Neurons have a "hibernation mode." Scientists discover how brain cells use RNA tentacles to lock their protein factories together to survive when energy is low.

Two human cells making RNA made visible by the bioluminescent lantern in pink (middle image). On the left, the same cells making a fluorescent protein that's distributed evenly throughout the two ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Using protein and RNA, scientists have created hollow, spherical sacks known as vesicles. These bubble-like entities — which form spontaneously when specific protein and RNA molecules ...