Over the last several decades ribonucleic acid (RNA) has been found to carry out a variety of previously unrecognized functions within cellular organisms. These discoveries, in conjunction with the first successful structural determination of natural RNA molecules by X-ray and NMR, have generated an interest in RNA outside the traditional bounds of molecular and cellular biology. The ability to control three-dimensional (3-D) space on the nano-scale as well as the inherent and demonstrated abilities of nucleic acids to self-assemble into predictable and controllable materials has caused RNA to gain acceptance and influence in the interdisciplinary fields of synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and nano-medicine. The following work details the guiding principles associated with the design and characterization of both natural and synthetic RNA while highlighting several newly designed RNA-based scaffolds with potential uses in the diverse fields above as well as the emerging field of RNA nanotechnology, which at its core seeks to design, to construct, and to test RNA nanoparticles that can perform specific cellular or biological functions.