For decades, scientists believed a fertilized egg’s DNA began as a shapeless mass, only organizing itself once the embryo switched on its genes. But new research reveals that the genome is already ...

In the middle of the 20th century, accumulating data suggested that DNA carries life’s genetic information. Biochemists around the world raced to determine its structure. The competition led to some ...

On February 28, 1953, two scientists, James Watson and Francis Crick, announced they had figured out the structure of DNA.

DNA nanotechnology has become an intense research field, with hundreds of research labs engaged in it, based on the idea that DNA can be used as a programmable structural material for the creation of ...

Here's NPR correspondent Joe Palca, from a 1993 broadcast, to commemorate the anniversary of the discovery of the structure of DNA. Sponsor Message : [POST-BROADCAST CLARIFICATION: This story, which ...

A new paper based on long-lost documents confirms that DNA discoverer Rosalind Franklin should be credited for discovering the double helix. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an ...

Beef jerky and some woolly mammoths have at least one thing in common: Drying turns their DNA into super-tough glass. This glassy DNA is so stable that it preserved the three-dimensional structure of ...

For decades, scientists viewed the genome of a newly fertilized egg as a structural "blank slate"—a disordered tangle of DNA ...

Getting DNA into a living cell sounds simple, until you remember the cell’s outer membrane acts like a guarded wall. DNA strands carry a negative charge, and they do not cross that wall easily.