Scientists found that DNA’s phosphate groups can direct chemical reactions to make the correct mirror-image form of drug molecules. This breakthrough simplifies chiral drug production, reducing waste and energy use.

The laws of inheritance are quite unknown,” Charles Darwin acknowledged in 1859. The discovery of DNA’s shape altered how we conceived of life itself.

A new gene-editing technique enables the correction of multiple genetic mutations simultaneously, transforming the prospects for millions living with complex inherited diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and Tay-Sachs.

On a foggy Saturday morning in 1953, a tall, skinny 24-year-old man fiddled with shapes he had cut out of cardboard. They represented fragments of a DNA molecule, and young James Watson was trying to figure how they fit together in a way that let DNA do its job as the stuff of genes.