Could yeast and humans be any more different? Going by looks alone, probably not. But peering into our genomes reveals ...

When the molecular machinery in our cells gets to work transcribing the genetic information encoded in DNA into messenger RNA (mRNA), it pauses shortly after starting. Known as promoter-proximal ...

Cells contain a blueprint in the form of DNA that dictates what they can make. This blueprint is converted into a message ...

The study, authored by Tripti Midha, Anatoly Kolomeisky and Oleg Igoshin and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Every living cell must interpret its genetic code — 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 ...

Viruses are masters at taking over our cells: They disable our defenses and hijack the cellular machinery in order to multiply successfully. For example, the herpes simplex virus 1, which causes ...

With the long-term goal of creating living cells from non-living components, scientists in the field of synthetic biology work with RNA origami. This tool uses the multifunctionality of the natural ...