Ancestry & Evolution
The desire to understand our origins is primal. By examining our DNA over successive generations through the evolutionary process of inherited characteristics of human and animal populations–as well as from those species from which humans share a common ancestry–we can decipher our individual and collective past and develop medical innovations for the future.
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Inuit newborns at serious risk during fasting due to “Arctic gene”
Thousands of years of a diet with lots of animal fats and sparse carbohydrates left a mark on the DNA ...
What humans share with viruses: Both need as few as 3,000 genes to function healthily
About a half-century ago the estimated number of human genes was in the millions. Today we’re down to about 20,000 ...
Should we include robotic limbs and A.I. when talking about evolution?
Scientists have a hard time deciding what Homo Futurus might look like. Will our evolutionary descendants resemble us? Will they be ...
IVF doesn’t cause low sperm counts in boy babies—Genes do
Media coverage of a recent study about infertility among boys who were conceived through IVF highlights that many misunderstand how ...
Epigenetics and disease: No easy answers
How can epigenetics, the systems that turn genes off and on, help us understand disease? It may take a while ...
How our Neanderthal ancestry helps us survive in the modern world
For the most part, [the DNA we inherited from Neanderthals] has been detrimental...[Neanderthal DNA] has been blamed for increasing risk of depression, ...
23andMe: Alt-right mistaken, DNA tests can’t ‘prove their whiteness’
A trend among members of the ultraconservative 'alt-right' movement is posting genetic test results online to prove their ‘whiteness.” They ...
DNA analysis: ‘Piltdown man’ hoax created with bones from 1 orangutan, at least 2 humans
In 1912, paleontologist Arthur Smith Woodward and amateur antiquarian and solicitor Charles Dawson announced the discovery of a fossil that ...
Paleovirology explores evolutionary history of HIV in hopes of finding cure
The Malayan flying lemur is a small brown animal with buggy eyes...[A] group of Czech scientists discovered another trait of this mammal: ...
Genetics of modern Irish reveal why giants are so common in country’s folklore
Scientists at the University of Exeter Medical School were part of genetics research which could help explain the legend of ...
‘Black and white twins’: How genetics, epigenetics explain non-identical identical twins
[Identical twins Amelia and Jasmine aren't] identical...One child has dark skin, black hair and brown eyes while the other has ...
Talking Biotech: 1000 Days’ Lucy Martinez-Sullivan on using science to tackle poor nutrition in pregnant moms, infants
1000 Days' Lucy Martinez-Sullivan: Science, social awareness has reshaped nutrition for pregnant women, young children ...
White supremacists using DNA tests to prove their ‘whiteness’
[W]hite supremacists of various stripes who congregate on parts of Reddit, 4chan, and elsewhere are using the genetic testing service ...
Using CRISPR to drive genes through a population likely to lead to ‘resistance’ in organisms
We might finally be able to beat evolution at its own game. Using the gene editing tool CRISPR...biologists can arrange ...
‘Hairpin science’: Unfolding mystery of the soupy origins of life on earth
The long-sought ingredient that may have helped gene-like strands to copy themselves in puddles for the first time ever, billions ...
Growing hybrid human-chimp brains to understand intellectual differences and disease
In her own small corner of this research utopia at the human brain laboratory at the University of Cambridge, Madeleine ...
No, you did not inherit your intelligence from your mother’s genes
The premise of [a post from Second Nexus is] that science has traced “intelligence genes” to the X chromosome and ...
Has human life span reached its limit?
Human life expectancy has steadily increased since the nineteenth century. Reports of supercentenarians...have prompted some to suggest that there is ...
Chimps may possess ‘theory of mind,’ are capable of understanding minds of human
A chimpanzee, a scientist with a stick and a researcher in a King Kong suit may sound like the setup ...
Native Americans fear potential exploitation of their DNA
To many tribal people, having a scientist come in from the outside looking to use their DNA to tell them ...
Video: Should we modify our genomes to survive in space?
With the talk of space exploration and Mars colonization raising hopes of humans becoming an interplanetary species, the issue of ...
Americans unearth surprises about immigrant ancestors using DNA, genealogy tests
Advances in the size and scope of vast digital databases, as well as the low cost of DNA testing, have ...
DNA tests helping descendants of slavery confront history of injustice against blacks
In 2002, descendants of African slaves filed a historic class-action lawsuit...demanding reparations from...companies that had benefited from their predecessors. Reparations ...
Mining Zika for genetic data may reveal how virus evolves, spreads and how it can be stopped
Pardis Sabeti is a computational geneticist who works at the Broad Institute of MIT Harvard, where she pinpoints the genetic ...
Genetic analysis reveals first settlers of remote Oceania islands Vanuatu and Tonga were Asian
A new study of ancient DNA could upend our understanding of the seafaring people who travelled vast distances to make ...
Genes linked to ‘human seeking behavior’ in dogs tied to bipolar disorder, autism in man
They like to be close to us, make eye contact and communicate with us – unusual behaviour between two different ...
For black Americans, DNA ancestry tests contain troubling reminder of treatment of slaves
There’s now hundreds of ancestry reveal videos on YouTube and Facebook, featuring people looking for answers about the past in ...
