In his new book, “The Catalyst,” Dr. Thomas Cech describes how mRNA in the COVID vaccines encodes the virus’s spike protein. The following is an excerpt from The Catalyst: RNA and the Quest to Unlock ...

RNA is usually portrayed as a molecule that works deep inside the cell, helping to turn genetic information into proteins.

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 ...

Researchers at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institutet have captured the first detailed molecular snapshots of human polynucleotide phosphorylase (hPNPase) in action, ...

A forested hill and clouds are in the background of an image of a shallow pool of steaming water, with the ground underneath colored in shades of beige, red, and brown. Life may have first emerged in ...