For decades, people referred to the non-coding bits of DNA between genes as junk DNA. Then, in the eighties scientists discovered that some of that junk DNA served an important purpose. The DNA attracted or repelled transcription factors and RNA, greatly enhancing or inhibiting the potency of adjacent genes. Now scientists have just found that one of those gene enhancers may be what separates humans and chimps.

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Gold is valuable to many in copious quantities, but for a team of Duke University scientists, a sub-cellular amount was all that was needed to create a nanostructure which could potentially act as a tiny biological sensor. One which could penetrate individual cells and report back on a cell’s inner workings in real time.

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DNA provides the genetic code for everything from bacteria to blue whales through combinations of just four DNA units, or bases. Now chemist Floyd Romesberg of the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego hopes to expand biology’s potential by adding more bases to the mix.

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Native Americans living in Oregon thousands of years ago did what came naturally before the advent of flush toilets (or the state of Oregon): They relieved themselves in a lakeside cave. Thanks to them, scientists now have samples of the oldest human DNA ever found in the New World.

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The latest in space-saving kitchen technology wont pop your popcorn, but it could help nab criminals. A new micro-microwave, smaller than an ant, can heat pinhead-size drops of liquid to precise temperatures—critical for the kind of lab-on-a-chip devices investigators could someday use in the field for biological analyses such as DNA fingerprinting.

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The fishing industry discards thousands of tons of salmon sperm every year (it ruins the taste). Now Andrew Steckl, a photonics expert at the University of Cincinnati, has figured out how to use the refuse to get a 10-fold boost in the brightness of the organic light-emitting diodes used in cellphones, PDAs and some TVs.

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Last February, PopSci added a new name to its list of contributors: Jonathan Coulton, Contributing Troubadour. So who is this guy, and what is he doing to earn that unique title?

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Now that scientists can analyze the DNA of any species, they are discovering that many animals that look indistinguishable are actually quite different at the genetic level-different enough to be classified as separate species. That means there may be a lot more biological diversity on Earth than meets the eye.

For example, biologists at the University of California, Berkeley, recently reported the discovery of a new species of Mexican salamander, Lineatriton, that looks identical to another species living several hundred miles away. Only DNA testing can tell them apart.

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