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Genetics

New Research

When Homo Sapiens Began to Emerge, Herpes Was Already Waiting

Herpes first evolved in chimpanzees before colonizing the cells of Homo erectus

New Research

Europe Was Probably Colonized By Island Hoppers

New genetic research shows that people and agriculture likely spread across the Mediterranean by going from island to island

New Research

Female Pigs Respond Differently to Batches of Sperm Carrying Mostly X Or Mostly Y Chromosomes

In an experiment, mother pigs’ gene expression changed depending on the sperm type they were fertilized wtih

Cool Finds

DNA Proves Once And for All That a Supposed Titanic Survivor Was a Fraud

Loraine Allison, a two-year-old who was on board the Titanic, almost certainly drowned

Thorax and wings of a tree bug (Pentatoma rufipes) found in 1990 in Graubünden, Switzerland, part of the Chernobyl fallout area. Hesse-Honegger notes that the right wings are disturbed and the scutellum is bent.

Art Meets Science

Chernobyl’s Bugs: The Art And Science Of Life After Nuclear Fallout

In 1986, a Swiss artist set out to document insects from regions affected by the Chernobyl disaster, and science is starting to catch up with her

New Research

Scientists Convince a Mouse’s Organ to Roll Back Its Own Aging

By triggering the expression of a specific gene, the mouse’s thymus reversed its aging

Scientists made synthetic version of a chromosome found in brewer's yeast, pictured above, a fungus commonly used to make beer.

New Research

Scientists Build a Yeast Chromosome From Scratch. Next Up? Designer Genomes

Creating synthetic organisms with specially-tailored genomes is a long way off, but the first synthetic eukaryotic chromosome is a big step forward

The Intel Science Talent Search honored the top winner and nine esteemed runners-up of its 2014 competition at a black-tie affair in Washington, D.C.

These Teenagers Have Already Accomplished More Than You Ever Will

The winners of this year’s Intel Science Talent Search take on flu vaccines, stem cells and tools for diagnosing cancer

Cool Finds

King Richard III Will Be the First Famous Historical Person Whose Genome Is Sequenced

And it’ll be public, so anyone can check it out

Sperm from the Aedes aegypti mosquito, magnified 50 times.

New Research

Mosquitoes’ Sperm Can Detect Smells

Mosquitoes’ individual sperm have scent-detecting sensors

Modern humans get back to their (partial) roots at the Neanderthal Museum in Germany.

New Research

Neanderthals Went Extinct 30,000 Years Ago, But Their DNA Is Still in the Human Genome

Some of the Neanderthal genes made important contributions while others made us more susceptible to disease

Cool Finds

GM Purple Tomatoes Could Actually Be Good for You

These tomatoes are stuffed with anthocyanins (but they’re not the only source of the healthy pigment)

In Selfmade, microbiologist Christina Agapakis and scent artist Sissel Tolaas made cheese from bacteria collected from people's mouths and toes.

Art Meets Science

Cheese Made From Bacteria Between Your Toes and Other Bizarre Bio Art

With groundbreaking (and controversial) projects, artists are starting a conversation about the future of synthetic biology

Researchers recreated what the 7,000 year-old man likely looked like.

New Research

Just Call This Hunter-Gatherer Ol’ Blue-Eyes

DNA from an ancient human tooth found in a cave in Spain reveals one European hunter-gatherer’s complexion

New Research

Two Pints of Water Can Contain the DNA of Thousands of Fish

Two pints of water from a 1.2 million gallon tank were all that was needed to identify 13,000 fish

Hiroshi Nagashima and Hiromitsu Nakauchi aim to genetically engineer pigs that grow human organs.

Will Japanese Researchers Grow Human Organs Inside Pigs?

A controversial technique to develop body parts from stem cells may someday save countless lives, but will society allow it?

A tobacco hornworm caterpillar chowing down on a wild tobacco plant in the Great Basin Desert, Utah

Caterpillars Repel Predators With Second-Hand Nicotine Puffs

As far as spiders are concerned, caterpillars have a case of very bad breath

A new species of tapir, a herbivorous mammal, was discovered in the Amazon earlier this month.

A Recap of Our Five Favorite New Species of 2013

An owl, a cat, a dolphin, and of course the olinguito, are among this year’s biggest new species finds

This 200 Million-Year-Old Plant Species Helps Explain the Origin of All Flowers

Of the 300,000 flowering plants known today, Amborella is the only one that directly traces back to the common ancestor of them all

Frozen seafood in the lab, ready for DNA testing.

The DNA Detectives That Reveal What Seafood You’re Really Eating

Genetic sequencing allows scientists to uncover increasingly prevalent seafood fraud

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