Human Spotlight
Genetics can’t determine your indigenous heritage
Collectively, genetics studies have shown us that the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas are descended from a group that diverged ...
Has the mystery of who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls been solved?
Dozens of skeletons discovered in the Judean Desert may finally reveal who wrote the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, a mystery that ...
Despite the hype, there was no ‘successful’ human head transplant
In February 2015, Sergio Canavero appeared in this very publication claiming a live human head will be successfully transplanted onto ...
New T-cell treatment shows promise for treating leukemia
A new way of genetically altering a patient’s cells to fight cancer has helped desperately ill people with leukemia when ...
Ex-NFL player first living person diagnosed with CTE
Researchers published, what they say is the first case of a living person identified with the degenerative brain disease, chronic traumatic ...
Why does testicular cancer respond better to chemotherapy? Stem cells
It’s because of the stem cells. Cornell University researchers determined that for testicular cancer, those cells are more capable of responding ...
Fighting aging: Mutation found in Amish population adds 10 years to lifespan
New research now shows that some humans possess a genetic equivalent to [an anti-aging] drug. A small number of Amish people in ...
Sheep can identify faces in photos—and that may help us understand Huntington’s disease
Researchers trained eight sheep to identify celebrity faces from photographs. The investigators also found that the sheep could identify a ...
‘Fault-free obesity’: How much are fat-storing genes causing expanding waistlines?
Obesity is often attributed to a simple equation: People are eating too much and exercising too little. But evidence is ...
Searching for extraterrestrial life: Finding the right communication technology
Scientists are looking for evidence of extraterrestrial communication across interstellar space. But what if other intelligent life forms are using ...
Should we populate other habitable worlds with life from Earth?
Our galaxy may contain billions of habitable worlds that don’t host any life. Should we attempt to change that? Claudius ...
Our brains grow and shrink when we learn—which is how we continue to absorb knowledge
Our past understanding of the brain would suggest that new knowledge requires new brain cells, and as a result our ...
What makes a female? How XX embryos destroy male reproductive tissue
A protein called COUP-TFII is necessary to eliminate male reproductive tissue from female mouse embryos, researchers report in the Aug. 18 Science. For ...
Viewpoint: Genetic engineering’s benefits extend far beyond GMO crops and controversy
In discussing biotechnology, too much controversy is focused on the crops developed by Monsanto and its competitors. Genetic engineering is ...
Can gene tweaking lower our cholesterol? Using CRISPR and nanotechnology in mice
U.S. researchers have used nanotechnology plus the powerful CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool to turn off a key cholesterol-related gene in ...
Gene therapy boost: FDA positions for faster reviews of new treatments
The Food and Drug Administration on [November 16] issued new guidelines to speed the introduction of treatments involving human cells ...
How tracing the evolutionary family tree of all female lab mice will help improve medical research
Adam and Eve, a pair of black mice, lived for less than two years and never left their home at ...
Viewpoint: Ethical arguments against gene-edited embryos will crumble as technology advances
[Editor's note: Michael White is a genetics professor at Washington University in St. Louis.] [S]cientists have developed an easy way to ...
Viewpoint: We need a conversation about gene editing and eugenics
[Editor's note: Karin Christiansen is head of research at the Centre for Health Technology at the Faculty of Health, VIA ...
Can the microbiome join DNA and fingerprints in the CSI toolkit?
Some scientists argue that our individual microbiomes are unique enough that they can be used to help identify the perpetrators ...
Siddhartha Mukherjee: Gene research critical in fight against cancer
The human genome is integral to understanding the complex history of human health and disease. Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee is a ...
Are ‘gene drive’ trials too risky for field studies?
In 2013, scientists discovered a new way to precisely edit genes — technology called Crispr... One of the more intriguing ...
Genetically engineered three-eyed beetle could aid development of lab-grown organs
Researchers have intentionally genetically modified a common beetle to develop a third functional eye, right in the middle of its ...
FDA likely to approve hereditary blindness gene therapy
[A]nother gene therapy is on the cusp of approval, this time to treat a form of hereditary blindness. If given ...
Video: CRISPR gene editing in real time
[Researcher Osamu] Nureki’s paper was published in Nature Communications Friday, and by early morning, the video that astonished the room in [a CRISPR ...
Biopesticides: Creating a mosquito-fighting bacteria wasn’t easy—or fast
[A]fter decades of international scientific effort, a new mosquito biopesticide (a pesticide that uses natural bacteria) has been approved. And it only took a year and ...
Veterans’ suicide attempts linked to gene expression
Though they only compose 8.5% of the U.S. population, veterans make up 18% of all suicides. Complicating matters is that ...
