Complex grammar of the genomic language
A new study from Sweden's Karolinska Institutet shows that the 'grammar' of the human genetic code is more complex than that of even the most intricately constructed spoken languages in the world. The...
View ArticleNature and nurture: Human brains evolved to be more responsive to...
Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, but what is it about the human brain that makes us so different? Researchers at the George Washington University may have unearthed another piece of the...
View Article'Frozen Ark' collects animal DNA in face of mass extinction
A British-led project called "Frozen Ark" is preserving the DNA of endangered species before they disappear as the Earth undergoes what scientists are calling the sixth mass extinction.
View ArticleTime travel with the molecular clock
Migration isn't a new phenomenon, but new insights suggest that modern-day Europeans actually have at least three ancestral populations. This finding was published by Johannes Krause and prominently...
View ArticleAncient viral molecules essential for human development, researchers say
Genetic material from ancient viral infections is critical to human development, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
View ArticleViruses, too, are our fingerprint
A group of researchers from the University of Helsinki and the University of Edinburgh have been the first to find the genetic material of a human virus from old human bones. Published in the journal...
View ArticleScientists, ethicists tackle gene editing's ethics, promise
A hot new tool to edit the human genetic code has a big wow factor: the promise of long-sought cures for intractable diseases. But depending on how it's used, that same tool could alter human heredity.
View ArticleSNR Policy Review debates the process of approving genetically engineered...
U.S. Federal regulators have approved a fast-growing transgenic salmon as the first genetically engineered animal raised for human consumption. While some are hailing it as a historic breakthrough,...
View ArticleFive reasons we should embrace gene-editing research on human embryos
Scientists from around the world are meeting in Washington this week to debate how best to proceed with research into gene-editing technology.
View ArticleThe 'eyes' have it: Astronaut vision and ophthalmologic problems explained
Just when you think you've seen it all, our eyes look to be victims of a low-gravity environments, too. According to new research published in the January 2016 issue of The FASEB Journal, two...
View ArticleHere's how genetics helped crack the history of human migration
Over the past 25 years, scientists have supported the view that modern humans left Africa around 50,000 years ago, spreading to different parts of the world by replacing resident human species like the...
View ArticleHarmful mutations have accumulated during early human migrations out of Africa
Modern humans (Homo sapiens) are thought to have first emerged in Africa about 150'000 years ago. 100'000 years later, a few of them left their homeland travelling first to Asia and then further east,...
View ArticleMonsanto's glyphosate now most heavily used weed-killer in history, study says
Monsanto's signature herbicide glyphosate, first marketed as "Roundup," is now the most widely and heavily applied weed-killer in the history of chemical agriculture in both the U.S. and globally,...
View ArticleThe origin of a species
A study by researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University has uncovered the key role played by a single gene in how groups of animals diverge to form new species. The...
View ArticleStone Age hunters contributed adaptive variants to present-day Europeans
Modern humans have adapted to their local environments over many thousands of years, but how genetic variation contributed to this adaptation remains debated. Using genomes from humans that lived...
View ArticleUnderappreciated protein plays critical role in RNA regulation and male...
A protein once thought to be of little consequence has been found to be a central player in processes ranging from male fertility to early embryonic development, according to a study published in the...
View ArticleTechnical advances in reading long DNA sequences have ramifications in...
Technical advances in reading long DNA sequences have ramifications in understanding primate evolution and human disease.
View ArticleGenetic analysis of Ice Age Europeans
Analyses of ancient DNA from prehistoric humans paint a picture of dramatic population change in Europe from 45,000 to 7,000 years ago, according to a new study led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute...
View ArticleGenetic testing proves Bene Israel community in India has Jewish roots
A new study from Tel Aviv University, Cornell University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine reveals genetic proof of the Jewish roots of the Bene Israel community in the western part of India....
View ArticleGenetically engineered crops: Experiences and prospects: new report
An extensive study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has found that new technologies in genetic engineering and conventional breeding are blurring the once clear...
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