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 […]
genetics
Nature: “How a fly came to love the vomit fruit”
You know, I went looking for some non-coronavirus science news, and Nature provided this gem of a headline about a plucky Drosophilia fruit-fly species and […]
Ancient African genome offers migration clues for the first humans.
Nature shares DNA research on the remains of four children in what is now Cameroon, revealing clues about how they lived and where they came […]
Preparing for another set of CRISPR-modified babies.
Nature reports on another geneticist – a Russian, this time – who has announced that he, too, will be gene-modifying human babies for HIV-positive mothers: […]
Yep, that whale was plenty weird. Half narwhal, half beluga.
Science News shares the genetic solution to a puzzle that’s had marine biologists (and Greenland whale hunters) puzzled since the 1980s. Namely, what the heck […]
Why do bats live so long? And how can we live longer too?
Ars Technica tries to discover what it is about bats that could help us humans live longer, healthier lives: For the most part, as the […]
We’re all mutants. Or largely mutant.
Science News has the results of a new study that shows healthy “normal” humans have a “large patches” of mutated cells in lots of different […]
The CRISPR-edited babies might have shortened lifespans.
Why? Well, as Nature explains, we’ve just found out that the same gene combination that gives HIV resistance to those kids He Jianku worked on […]
A genetically weaponized fungus is getting used against malaria.
PhysOrg has a report on a genetically modified fungus that is capable, if released into the wild, of using spider venom to eliminate the mosquitoes […]
Geneticists discover what makes grocery-store tomatoes inferior (so now they can fix it).
Discover takes us into the geneticists’ kitchen, where they’ve isolated the gene that makes fresh tomatoes taste good – that’s missing from 93% of store-bought […]
Someone else’s DNA got in there: Engineering a bull to create another bull’s semen.
Nature reports on a new agricultural practice that has some weird ramifications for humans – a genetics process for making one male create sperm cells […]
“Hacked” yeast used to brew THC and other cannabis compounds.
Nature has some, uh, heady science in the form of brewer’s yeast genetically modified to produce chemicals usually found in marijuana – the healthy ones […]
Genetically-altered houseplants clear indoor air.
Science Daily reveals an environmentally friendly GMO – a new variety of pothos ivy that University of Washington researchers designed to remove chloroform and benzene […]
She might’ve been Plague Victim Zero.
Science News unearths the 5,000-year-old remains of a Scandinavian woman who seems to have been the oldest known victim of the Black Death: DNA extracted […]
We really did walk with unicorns.
PhysOrg explains that they were really Elasmotheriums – 3.5-ton primordial rhinos known as “Siberian unicorns” – but they really did survive into the era of […]