genetics (Page 2)

Latest in genetics

a rattlesnake with brown and white scales is coiled on the ground of a forest

Michigan’s only rattlesnake is inbreeding

By Laura Baisas

Older, wrinkled hand reaching out to child's hand

Skin wrinkles because it stretches like Silly Putty

a team of greenland sled dog puppies with white fur pulls a sled

Oldest known dog breed reveals hidden human history

By Lauren Leffer

Facial reconstruction of the individual from Nuwayrat using 3D scan data of the skull and analysis of the bones.

First complete ancient Egyptian DNA genome reveals his occupation

Newgrange burial mound on sunny day in Ireland

Incestuous ‘god-kings’ may not have ruled Stone Age Ireland after all

Close up of fruit fly head on orange background

Researchers genetically altered fruit flies to crave cocaine

Portrait of a 5 month old baby girl

Ask Us Anything

Why do babies’ eyes change color? Sunlight, genetics, and more.

By Sarah Lindenfeld Hall

A painting scene of people suffering from the bubonic plague in the 15th century from the Toggenberg Bible.

How the bubonic plague has survived for centuries

By Laura Baisas

Masted schooner ship at sea

Skull found on New Jersey beach linked to 19th century shipwreck

a clear marine worm with many appendages branching out of its torso and some dots of colors

Sea worm’s reproductive bits grow their own eyes before mating

By Laura Baisas

Entamoeba histolytica (green) attacking human T cells.

This parasite rips apart human cells and wears them as disguises

seven women in dive gear stand on black rocks above the ocean on a cloudy day

South Korea’s ‘sea women’ are genetically adapted for their tough trade

By Lauren Leffer

Close up of cane toad tadpole eating toad eggs underwater

Cannibal tadpoles help Australia fight invasive species

one brown horse and one black horse run along green fields in iceland

Scientists discover why horses are such exceptional athletes

By Lauren Leffer

Diagram of Lapedo child grave site

Scientists pinpoint age of suspected human-Neanderthal hybrid child

Red tomatoes with googly eyes on yellow background

Scientists finally figured out why tomatoes don’t kill you

an archeologist wearing a hard hat digs in a hole alongside skeletal remains

British Iron Age burial grounds reveal women had power

By Laura Baisas

Two feral dogs walking near abandoned Ferris wheel in Chernobyl

Chernobyl’s feral dogs are genetically unique, but not mutated

a woman nuzzles a dog

Meet the former musher investigating sled dog genetics

By Laura Baisas

This fluorescence image shows chloroplasts (magenta colored) successfully incorporated into the hamster cells, with other features of the animal cell also highlighted (nuclei in light blue and organelles in yellow-green).

Bioengineers made mutant, solar-powered hamster cells

Ripe tomatoes on green garden.

They CRISPR’ed tomatoes to make them sweet and large

a 900 year old skeleton

Tooth powder unlocks clues to an 800-year-old mystery of man thrown into well

By Laura Baisas

two stalk-eyed flies fight on a stick. these flies have long antennae with eyeballs on the tips

Flies with shorter eye-stalks act aggressively because females are less attracted to them

By Laura Baisas

Close up of memory crystal disc encoded with human genome

In case of extinction, scientists store human genome on a ‘memory crystal’ that lasts billions of years

Mini mum is one of the smallest frogs in the world, described by Mark D. Scherz and his colleagues in 2019. These tiny frogs from southeastern Madagascar live in amongst the leaf litter and feed on tiny mites. They are amongst the target species of the GEMINI project, because their closest relatives are ten times larger.

Researchers want to unlock genetics of the world’s tiniest animals

several loaves of golden rustic looking bread on a table

How farming helped humans evolve to get more energy from carbs

By Laura Baisas

a moth with a yellow body, pink legs, and pink and yellow wings sits on a green leaf

The ‘disco’ gene could help moths tell time

By Laura Baisas

Illustration of woolly mammoth walking icy plain

The last woolly mammoths were impressively inbred—but that’s not what killed them

Detail from the reconstructed stone tzompantli, or skull rack, at Chichén Itzá.

Ancient Mayan human sacrifices involved twins

DNA test tube and cotton swab wipe test

Law enforcement collected over 1.5 million people’s DNA since 2020

Archivist scanning documents at National Archives

Ancestry and the National Archives are digitizing tens of millions of records

Pigs in sty at factory farm

Gene-edited pigs immune to deadly virus could arrive on farms by next year

Woman's hands holding 23andMe saliva testing box

23andMe says a data breach affected nearly half of its 14 million users

Closeup multicolor image of anthrobot

Meet ‘anthrobots,’ tiny bio-machines built from human tracheal cells

a collection of woolly mammoth figurines on petri dishes on a blue background to represent Colossal's de-extinction project

Endangered Species

Is de-extinction only a pipette dream? This startup has a big, expensive plan to find out.

By Andrew Zaleski

Spider silk stronger than Kevlar spun by an unlikely source

Spider silk stronger than Kevlar spun by an unlikely source

Purple and blue visualizations of human chromosomes.

The final missing piece of the human genome has been decoded

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

parasitic horsehair worm

‘Brainwashing’ parasites inherit a strange genetic gap

By Maddi Langweil

Cells have some clever tricks for copying DNA

By Amber Dance/Knowable Magazine

Scores of critical lab tests fall into a regulatory void. The FDA is trying to close it.

Scores of critical lab tests fall into a regulatory void. The FDA is trying to close it.

By Anna Clark/ProPublica

Karyotype of human chromosomes including sex chromosomes XY and XX

Men lose Y chromosomes with age, and it might increase their risk of bladder cancer

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Evolution of human brain size shown with brass sculptures at a kids science museum in China

We probably have big brains because we got lucky

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

an orange spotted fish with a white line that stretches across its body

What rockfish genes can teach humans about living past 100

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Woolly mammoths in forests in Greenland after eDNA reconstruction. The scene is an illustration.

Oldest DNA ever sampled paints a lush portrait of a lost Arctic world

a semi-translucent fish with a tadpole-shaped body and small flecks of red and yellow

Biofluorescent snailfish brave Arctic waters with built-in antifreeze

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

a close up of a fossil horse tooth

A centuries-old horse tooth holds clues to the mystery of the Chincoteague ponies

By Kate Baggaley

Arteries with red blood cells flowing through and a yellowish cholesterol clog in a medical illustration

A super-sharp gene editing tool could tackle high cholesterol and other common ailments

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

MBARI's eDNA robot in the ocean

These seawater-sipping robots use drifting genes to make ocean guest logs

By Charlotte Hu

esther-lederberg

Esther Lederberg changed our understanding of how bacteria breed

By Lina Zeldovich

A row of illuminated strings, with glowing orbs in some of them.

The Human Cell Atlas is pinpointing where our bodies break down

By Philip Kiefer

The 1918 flu outbreak, in which patients were kept in quarantine wards like this, was one of the world's deadliest pandemics.

A viral descendent of the deadly 1918 flu is probably still going around

husky staring at you intently

The biggest myth about dog breeds

Anthropologists are still wrestling with their obligations to the living and dead

Anthropologists are still wrestling with their obligations to the living and dead

By Philip Kiefer

How vampire bats evolved to get the most out of their bloody diets

By Kate Baggaley

SARS-CoV-2 or COVID virus infecting human cells in a green and purple microscopy image

A deep dive on the evolution of COVID and its variants

By Philip Kiefer

closeup of a whorled fingerprint pattern on a white person

The genes behind your fingerprints just got weirder

By Lauren J. Young

a bushel of lychee, a red, prickly skinned spherical fruit with white, glossy edible flesh surrounding a dark oval shaped seed. two of the lychees' skin is peeled to reveal the white flesh

Good news for lychee lovers: There may be a way to grow the fruits year-round

A lineup of the best DNA test kits on a white background

The best DNA test kits

By Stacey L. Nash

Person with luggage traveling through airport during COVID-19 pandemic

Some people have a gene that could make COVID far more deadly

By Margo Milanowski

a worker ant in an aggressive stance against a white background

The protein that keeps worker ants in line can also make them queen

Two identical twin women of color stand in front of a gray brick wall, wearing striped shirts and braided hair.

Scientists can now tell if you had a ‘vanishing’ twin in the womb

Farmer picking potatoes.

Is it ok to eat GMO foods? Scientists say ‘yes.’

By Charlotte Hu

Rendering of mammoth in forest.

This CRISPR startup thinks that mammoths can save the Arctic. Is it right?

By Charlotte Hu

Exercise, brainwaves, light, headaches, and more affect sleep

5 reasons you can’t sleep

By Eleanor Cummins