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Genetics

Harvesting a cocoa tree

Cool Finds

Who Will Save the World’s Chocolate?

As climate change threatens cocoa crops, rival food companies are banding together

A view from Mota Cave in Ethiopia, where archaeologists found the remains of a 4,500-year-old human.

New Research

Back to Africa: Ancient Human Genome Reveals Widespread Eurasian Mix

Genes from a 4,500-year-old skeleton from Ethiopia show how migrations shaped modern populations

New Research

Another Step Closer to Male Birth Control Pills

A protein might lead to an oral contraceptive for men

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

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

New Research

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

New tools cut sequencing time almost in half

Cool Finds

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

From lab animal to potential pet

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?

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

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.

Trending Today

Argentinian Grandmothers Are Using DNA to Track Down Stolen Children

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

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

Trending Today

Some Brands Are Labeling Products “GMO-free” Even if They Don’t Have Genes

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

Yeast, a multipurpose microbe.

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

New Research

Bully or Bystander? It Could Be in the Genes

New study says bullying may be nature, not nurture

A mother rhino breastfeeding her baby

Cool Finds

Why Mammals Have a Monopoly On Milk

It all started with an egg

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

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

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

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

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

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