DNA shows “Viking” was a job, not a heredity.
Science shares the results of a massive survey of Viking graves, which determined that the famous Northern raiders were actually from all kinds of different […]
genetics
Better long-term memory … for females, at least.
Nature reports on research that gave mice acetate, a common byproduct of digesting alcohol, glucose, or fiber… and found that it improved long-term memory — […]
Long life really can come down to good ancestors.
Well, good at living a long time, at least. Nature reports on a study that finds about 55 percent of the factors that grant a […]
Why did Jeffrey Epstein “collect” so many scientists?
Scientific American has a rather deeply researched piece on something that feels like it’s about politics at first, since it’s following the donations of a […]
Caribbean whales have viruses we’ve never heard of.
Science Daily reports on pilot whales and orcas in the Caribbean which DNA analysis has revealed are carrying “invisible” viruses we’ve never detected before: The […]
Octopus color-changing pigment is recreated.
Science Alert reports on the latest superpower to be replicated in the lab with a UC San Diego team producing xanthommatin, the pigment chemical responsible […]
Science Art:Vergleich der Aufnahme von RNA und modR in der Zelle, 2018
A diagram of two kinds of RNA doing their thing inside a cell (which is converting instructions from DNA into some kind of protein that […]
SONG: What To Do (On mRNA Immune Checkpoint Blockade)
SONG: “What To Do (On mRNA Immune Checkpoint Blockade)”. (OGG version here.) ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Based on “People with some cancers live longer after a […]
Making embryos from human skin
BBC recently reported on scientists taking DNA from human skin cells and fertilizing it with sperm to create a non-egg embryo – or at least […]
Ghost sharks have teeth on their foreheads because it’s sexy.
PhysOrg redefines what “attractive” is for the deep-sea set, thanks to a study that has found male ghost sharks grow a retractable, tooth-covered rod out […]
DNA reveals Africans in medieval England.
Anthropology.net looks at two 7th-century graves from different parts of England — Kent and Dorset — that prove African-descended people were living in England practically […]
Looking Denisovans in the face for the first time.
Cell reconstructs a prehistoric face, thanks to DNA analysis of an unusual skull that proved to be the first-known skull of a Denisovan, the other […]
Our butts used to be sperm dispensers.
Science Alert reports on an evolutionary study that has found our butts (from which everybody, as the children’s book tells us, poops) were originally a […]
Tricking the immune system into attacking tumors.
Nature reports on Chinese researchers who found a way to make the body get rid of cancer — by disguising tumors as transplanted pig organs, […]
You are what your great-grandparents didn’t eat
Nautilus looks at the long-term effects of famine — and finds that extreme hunger can affect the bodies of future generations: To conduct their research, […]