Butterfly wing-patterns come from ancient DNA, switched around by junk.
The National Science Foundation follows researchers taking a second look at “junk” DNA – the genes that don’t seem to do anything and instead just […]
genetics
Genetic finding shows how modern humans grew more brain cells than Neanderthals.
Science magazine reveals the single gene change that gave Homo sapiens sapiens the edge in brain matter over Homo sapiens neanderthalensis: [Wieland Huttner, a Max […]
Octopus brains and human brains have “jumping genes” in common.
Science Daily reports on an Italian study that found something in common between human brains and the brains of two different species of the unusually […]
Reading the DNA from Pompeii
BBC reports on a study reassembling the genome of a man and woman preserved for centuries under the ash of Pompeii, and what the ancient […]
The first hybrid humans ever bred was a kunga.
Science News takes us back 4,500 years to ancient Syria, where domesticated donkeys and wild asses called “hemippes” were bred together for war – as […]
Gene Roddenberry’s autograph in bacterial DNA sold as an NFT, displayed at Art Basel.
The Verge has one of the most potentially confusing science stories in a while. Gene Roddenberry’s estate, they report, has rendered the Star Trek creator’s […]
Brain-cell clusters can mimic a newborn’s brain.
Science magazine looks at a mini-brain in a mini-jar – a cluster of stem cells coaxed into forming an “organoid,” a clump of cells that […]
America is cloning ferrets.
AP News is reporting that America has caught up with Scotland in the clone wars. They cloned Dolly the Sheep, and now we’ve cloned an […]
Science Art: Leavitt Bulldog body diagram, 2013
As most folks know, today’s English bulldog is an animal that has been, as they say, “overbred.” They have beautiful temperaments as a rule, and […]
Why do female moles grow testicles?
LiveScience answers that question: because a female mole’s underground life is brutal: Just like a more typical mammalian ovary, ovotestes nurture and release eggs for […]
Using DNA to take snapshots of cells
Science magazine takes focus on a new form of microscopy, using DNA like a microscope to look inside cells: To make the DNA microscope, postdoc […]
DNA study confirms: “Viking” was a job, not an ethnicity.
Science reveals the results of a massive genetic study of Viking remains across Europe, which found that people from all genetic backgrounds took up the […]
Neanderthals were more sensitive to pain.
Nature produces one more clue that if any prehistoric “cave men” were the tough, insensitive brutes, it was our ancestors. Neanderthals, a new gene study […]
Growing Neanderthal brains in the lab (using European stem cells).
CNN covers an odd project, using Svante Paabo’s reconstructed Neanderthal genome and European stem-cell banks to recreate mini-brain cell-clusters that are up to 20% Neanderthal […]
New York’s coronavirus outbreak came from Europe, not China.
The New York Times looks at two different batches of genetic data which both indicate that shutting down travel from China didn’t actually affect the […]