SANTA CRUZ, CA — Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have determined the three-dimensional structure of an RNA enzyme, or “ribozyme,” that carries out a fundamental reaction ...

Adding a small molecule, dubbed a “molecular midwife,” researchers increased the rate of DNA formation in a chemical reaction 1,000 fold over a similar reaction lacking a midwife. The discovery is an ...

A 45-nucleotide strand of RNA can now synthesize both its mirror-image complement and a copy of itself, bringing scientists closer than ever to demonstrating how life could have emerged from chemistry ...