Comparison of a single-stranded RNA and a double-stranded DNA with their corresponding nucleobases. (Image: Wikimedia Commons, CC SA 3.0) The most common type of base pairing is the Watson-Crick base ...

Insights could not only pave the way for new treatment strategies for genetic disorders, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, but also enhance gene-editing technologies.

RNA’s Surprising Role in DNA Repair New insights could lead to improved treatments for cancer and other diseases. Francesca Storici and her research team discovered a surprising role for RNA in DNA ...

When scientists sliced into a block of Siberian permafrost and pulled out a woolly mammoth nicknamed Yuka, they expected to ...

For decades, biology textbooks taught that DNA’s story could be told with a single image: two elegant strands twisting in 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 ...

Not all DNA looks like the familiar twisted ladder. Sometimes, parts of our genetic code fold into unusual shapes. One such structure, the G-quadruplex (G4), looks like a knot. These knots can play ...

Francesca Storici consults at Tessera Therapeutics. She has received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Your DNA is continually damaged by sources both ...