How brushing your teeth affects the microbiome of the placenta and infant

How brushing your teeth affects the microbiome of the placenta and infant

Ben Locwin | 
I’ve written in the past regarding some of the seminal hypotheses of how the microbiome influences our health, behavior, and ...
old woman runner

Live to be 100+? Extreme longevity research is futuristic privatized enterprise

Meredith Knight | 
When longevity research is privately funded, what happens when the money runs dry? ...
Fission yeast

Evolution do-over might lead to the same place

Meredith Knight | 
Scientists have often wondered if evolution happened all over again, what would life on earth look like? A Harvard biologist ...
bpldna

Do cancers act as a DNA time machine?

Kenrick Vezina | 
Are cancers an evolutionary atavism, revealing the genetic history of humankind? Might physicists be the key to winning the War ...
Transhuman

Human enhancement upsets extremists on left and right

Kenrick Vezina | 
The prospects of a fast-approaching Age of Enhancement evokes caution in almost everyone, scientist or otherwise. It has been the ...
mitochandria

Call it what it is: Mitochondrial replacement does not a three-parent baby make

Meredith Knight | 
Mitochandrial replacement offers hope to families debilitated by disease. But opponents stoke fear of public by dumbing down the science ...
ivf

New IVF technique may cut multiple births, complications

Meredith Knight | 
Although IVF has been used for decades and is considered very safe, the procedure does increase pregnancy risks because it ...
chimpAP x

Chimpanzee’s highly heritable intelligence window on human IQ

Kenrick Vezina | 
General intelligence in chimpanzees appears to be about 50 percent heritable, which lines up with work on the genetics of ...
addiction

Addiction: How our genes program our preferences and habits

Ben Locwin | 
Just 11 genes successfully identify who is likely to have problems with alcohol abuse and who will not. Does this ...
Albert Einstein Head

Genetics of intelligence: many, many genes with tiny effects

Meredith Knight | 
The explanation of the inheritance of intelligence has long been studied, but without any blockbuster results. A new study adds ...
ecd a b d z

Personal genetics consumers risk uncovering uncertain paternity

Julia Belluz | 
Personal genomics products continue to have unintended consequences that end either in joyous occasion, but often times also come with ...
Screen Shot at AM

Who owns your DNA? It’s not who you think

Meredith Knight | 
Recent court cases show the law favors hospitals and law enforcement rather than individuals when it comes to handing genomic ...
AbaqaOnHorseArghunStandingGhazanAsAChild

Genghis Khan and the role of power, wealth and behavior in human genetic ancestry

Meredith Knight | 
Mongolian ruler Genghis Khan marked 16 million males as his progeny after he conquered Eurasia with his sons and brothers ...
file

Is “reductionism” in behavioral genetics a boon or curse?

Kenrick Vezina | 
Reductionism haunts modern genetics, but how has this approach — akin to taking apart a watch to see how it ...
Rhizobia x

Genetic short cuts: Horizontal gene transfer

Meredith Knight | 
Some plants rely on specialized bacterial backup to help them synthesize nutrients. Instead of evolving these traits over and over ...
a b c z

Humans’ love for simple stories and status quo make opinions intractable in face of fact

Meredith Knight | 
Popular opinions about complex issues in science and technology are often held to even when facts and experts are presented ...
parents

Deconstructing the polarizing debate over ‘3-parent babies’

Ben Locwin | 
On most issues, the public debate follows a normal distribution curve, with the majority in the 'muddled middle'. That's not ...
px Toxoplasma gondii tissue cyst in mouse brain

Parasite practices genetic mind control to spread infection

Meredith Knight | 
Toxoplasma gondii, the parasitic infection that may infect almost half the worlds human population uses some special trick to control ...
prenatal diagnostics

Richard Dawkins’ moral policing aside, new era of fetal diagnostics underway

Kavin Senapathy | 
What would you do if you were pregnant with a fetus affected by a severe disorder? Abortion is often the ...
When the media hypes epigenetics, mothers take the blame

When the media hypes epigenetics, mothers take the blame

Sarah King | 
There's a lot of talk about epigenetics in the news, but scientists still don't know what it all means. A ...
d b bdfb z

Brain, behavior and genetics

Meredith Knight | 
The link between our genetics and how we behave is the topic of much speculation, some if it highly controversial ...
d z

Personal genomics: Care to update your haplogroup status page?

Meredith Knight | 
Personalized genomics offers the opportunity to revolutionize medical care and our understanding of disease. But many first adopters won’t wait ...
Marys Gone Crackers Organic Gluten Free Crispy Crackers Hot n Spicy Jalapeno

Food labels: Gimmicks or guides to the future of food?

Ben Locwin | 
We are experiencing a labeling orgy. Consumers with no gluten allergies are snapping up gluten free producers. Non-GMO labels pump ...
Human genome

Genome sequencing is getting cheaper, but might make healthcare more expensive

Peter Ubel | 
Cheaper genomic sequencing will give more patients and their physicians access to genetics in the healthcare system. But will that ...
ldd

Can open-source strategy help synbio avoid controversial fate of GMOs?

Meredith Knight | 
It’s not the use of recombinant technology, but rather capitalism and greed that has stigmatized genetic engineering in our culture ...
px Hooded Crow Corvus cornix

How a small stretch of DNA can keep species separate — even when they interbreed

Emily Singer | 
Sometimes, two distinct species interbreed, even though they're technically not supposed to. But what stops these rare cases of hybridization ...
a b z

Beyond autopsies: Using post-mortem brain scans to understand stroke, head injury and death

Meredith Knight | 
Besides their ability to lie completely still in MRI scanners, making them excellent patients, corpses have a lot of offer ...
glp menu logo outlined

Newsletter Subscription

* indicates required
Email Lists