Articles tagged as Genetics | Smithsonian Magazine

Baby tree saplings, cloned from giant redwoods in California, chill out in the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive's propagation area.

Age of Humans

The Race to Save the World’s Great Trees By Cloning Them

A nonprofit dedicated to preserving old, iconic trees is cloning them in hopes of preserving them for the future

October 6, 2015

The flat-tail horned lizard's desert habitats in the American West are changing rapidly, thanks to us humans.

Age of Humans

Even Desert Lizards Are Feeling the Heat Due to Climate Change

But Smithsonian scientists are probing the flat-tail horned lizard’s DNA to save the rare species

October 5, 2015

New Research

Scientists Can Now Sequence a Human’s Genome in 26 Hours

New tools cut sequencing time almost in half

October 5, 2015

Cool Finds

For $1,600 You Can Own a Genetically Altered Micropig

From lab animal to potential pet

October 2, 2015

This pig could be growing a heart or lungs for a transplant.

The Innovative Spirit

The Future of Animal-to-Human Organ Transplants

Could a genetically engineered pig heart one day function in a person?

September 17, 2015

A juvenile crocodile in a Cape York peninsula river, the region where researchers recently looked for wild rice species

Cool Finds

To Find New Rice Species, Scientists Head to Remote Tropical Swamps

A remote peninsula in northern Australia beckons a rice research expedition

September 9, 2015

Estela de Carlotto, president of Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. de Carlotto’s grandson was recovered 36 years after he was abducted and adopted by another family.

A national genetic bank and novel identification techniques have helped identify over 100 children abducted during Argentina’s “Dirty War”

September 3, 2015

Sure, it looks cute now, but a new study explores why babies influence their moms' DNA for years.

New Research

Baby’s Cells Can Manipulate Mom’s Body for Decades

An evolutionary approach may help scientists understand why mothers become genetic chimeras and how that affects their health

September 2, 2015

More companies are paying to label their food as non-GMO, whether they need it or not.

August 27, 2015

Innovative Spirit Health Care

A Genetically Modified Yeast Turns Sugar Into Painkillers

Stanford scientists have engineered a strain of yeast that can produce opiates on its own

August 13, 2015

New Research

Bully or Bystander? It Could Be in the Genes

New study says bullying may be nature, not nurture

July 30, 2015

Cool Finds

Why Mammals Have a Monopoly On Milk

It all started with an egg

July 28, 2015

Brazil's Surui people, like the man pictured above, share ancestry with indigenous Australians, new evidence suggests.

New Research

A DNA Search for the First Americans Links Amazon Groups to Indigenous Australians

The new genetic analysis takes aim at the theory that just one founding group settled the Americas

July 21, 2015

An illustration shows the process of cell division, which involves chromosome pairs swapping some of their genetic data.

New Research

Human Sex Chromosomes Are Sloppy DNA Swappers

The genetic bundles that code for males and females can get a little messy when they trade pieces during cell division

July 17, 2015

Tissue samples in test tubes, like the one D.C. high school student Asia Hill is holding above, are wrapped tin foil and dropped into the team's portable liquid nitrogen tank.

These Scientists Hope to Have Half the World’s Plant Families on Ice By the End of Summer

Teaming up with botanical gardens, researchers at the Natural History Museum are digging deep into garden plant genomics

July 9, 2015

Through genetic engineering, researchers are trying to give high-producing black Angus cows cooler white coats to face the changing climate.

Researchers Are Trying to Genetically Engineer Cows to Stay Cool

As the planet warms, researchers are trying to engineer a cow that can beat the heat

July 6, 2015

A genetically modified lamb from a research lab in France was accidentally sent to market in November. It's unclear who might have eaten her.

A Genetically Modified Sheep was Sent to a Slaughter House and Sold for Meat

The lamb came from a agricultural research lab and was equipped with a jellyfish gene

June 24, 2015

Cool Finds

What Does it Really Mean to Be 99 Percent Chimp?

This video breaks down our statistical similarity to chimpanzees

June 19, 2015

Previous analysis of the Kennewick Man's skull suggested that he might be closely related to Asian populations and Polynesians. But new genetic analysis indicates his ancestral roots are in the Americas.

New Research

Genome Analysis Links Kennewick Man to Native Americans

Ancient DNA sequenced from the skeleton adds to the controversy over the individual’s ancestry

June 18, 2015

The Same Probiotic That’s In Your Yogurt Could Detect Liver Cancer

Take a dose of this bacteria, genetically altered by scientists at MIT, and your urine will glow if liver cancer is present

June 10, 2015