The discovery of catalytic RNA transformed our understanding of life's beginnings. Clare Sansom explores how the RNA world ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The RNA world theory suggests that life on Earth began with RNA molecules that copied themselves. It’s believed this self-replication eventually gave rise over millions of years to DNA ...

"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." For 400 million years, a leading hypothesis claims, Earth was an “RNA World,” meaning that life must’ve ...

The mystery of why life uses molecules with specific orientations has deepened with a discovery that RNA—a key molecule thought to have potentially held the instructions for life before DNA ...

There are key moments in Earth's history that remain shrouded in mystery. The emergence of the first molecules capable of working together to give rise to life is one of them. For several decades, ...

How life began on Earth has captivated scientists for centuries. A prevailing theory in the scientific community, known as the “RNA World” hypothesis, suggests life might have originally come from ...

A breakthrough experiment, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offers compelling support for the RNA world hypothesis, one of the leading theories on how life began on ...