Most Jews can trace ancestry to Middle East

Judy Maltz | 
Where did the Jews originate? For Bennett Greenspan, the founder and president of Family Tree DNA, there’s little doubt, and ...

Virus found in algae might cause cognitive deficits in humans

Vincent Racaniello | 
Many well-known human viruses, including poliovirus, rabies virus, West Nile virus, can infect cells of the nervous system, leading to ...
obese man

Human obesity and livestock growth: Are antibiotics the link?

Meredith Knight | 
Patients often request and use antibiotics thinking they have no long-term effects of the medications. But work on the human ...
depression mental

What is the worldwide cost of depression?

Kerri Smith | 
Depression is a major human blight. Globally, it is responsible for more ‘years lost’ to disability than any other condition ...
genetic profile x

Despite life saving benefits, many doctors reluctant to recommend genetic testing

Randy Dotinga | 
Many American doctors may not support genetic testing in patients without a major family history of certain illnesses, suggests a ...

Evolution explains infanticide among mammals

Carl Zimmer | 
In the early 1970s, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, then a graduate student at Harvard, traveled to India to study Hanuman langurs, ...

Neuroscience research has long way to go

Adam Marblestone, Gary Marcus, Jeremy Freeman | 
The human brain contains roughly 86 billion neurons and trillions, perhaps hundreds of trillions, of intricate interconnections among those neurons ...

Humans struggle to identify odors despite acute sense of smell

Gregory J. Downey | 
In most mammals, olfaction is dominant. Smell uses a large portion of their brains, and aroma receptors are encoded by ...

Rat study sheds light on question of human ‘free will’

Neuroskeptic | 
New research on the neural basis of ‘spontaneous’ actions in rats could shed light on the philosophical mystery that is ...
static squarespace

Profile of a personal genetics company: PHENOMBio

Layla Katiraee | 
Interest in personal genomics sites that provide insight into the link between your genes and disease proclivities is booming. But ...

Gene variant may be linked to better memory, protection against Alzheimer’s

People with a newly identified genetic variant perform better on certain types of memory tests, a discovery that may point ...

Yellow fever mosquitoes’ genes pick up human odor

The yellow fever mosquito sustains its taste for human blood thanks to a genetic tweak that makes it more sensitive ...

Creativity more imitation than innovation

Kat McGowan | 
In today’s world, inventors are our heroes and our saviours – the geniuses who keep the world economy surging forward, ...
pd mammogram mn

Are breast cancer screenings always beneficial?

Clare Wilson | 
Breast screening in the UK is at the centre of renewed controversy after an influential group of British MPs called ...

What gave rise to tool use among primates?

Jenna Iacurci | 
Primates use all kinds of tools in the wild to acquire food resources. For example, chimpanzees use stones to crack ...
Mammogram

Cost benefits of cancer screenings get political in the UK

Meredith Knight | 
Cancer screening have helped save many of lives, but have shifted the demographics of who gets the disease. Should we ...

Stem cells, CRISPR/Cas9 explored for possible HIV treatment

Cynthia Fox | 
“Berlin Patient” Timothy Brown was cured of HIV after he received stem cells from a patient naturally immune to the ...

Contamination of DNA samples by microbes confounds

Ed Yong | 
You’ve got a group of people with a mysterious disease, and you suspect that some microbe might be responsible. You ...

In Ebola drug trials, who receives treatment?

Erika Check Hayden | 
With clinical trials of experimental Ebola treatments set to begin in December, public-health officials face a major ethical quandary: should ...

What brain science has and has not revealed, so far

James Gorman | 
Research on the brain is surging. The United States and the European Union have launched new programs to better understand ...

Device allows people to alter mouse genes through mind control

Ian Sample | 
Scientists have created a mind-control system that allows a person to alter the genes in a mouse through the power ...
CancerScreen

Fatal Retraction: Downside of early cancer detection

Jane Palmer | 
Google recently promised to develop early-detection technology for cancer, heart disease and strokes. While early diagnosis might seem like a ...
Cancer Paper

Food Babe flops on BRCA mutations: Understand genetics or go home

Kavin Senapathy | 
Charlatans like Food Babe, Dr. Oz, Joseph Mercola, and Vandana Shiva represent everything disgraceful about unscientific propaganda. Cancer misinformation is ...

EO Wilson, Richard Dawkins renew clash over evolution

Chris Johnston | 
The war of words between the biologists EO Wilson and Richard Dawkins has reignited after the Harvard professor described his ...

Google to start offering DNA tests to employees with cancer

Christina Farr | 
Google will soon start covering the cost of Foundation Medicine's DNA tests for employees and their family-members suffering from cancer, ...

Embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells both carry similar DNA mutations

A team led by New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute scientists conducted a study comparing induced pluripotent stem ...

Newly discovered ancient human skeleton contains lost Neanderthal DNA

John Timmer | 
Another week, another ancient human genome. We just recently covered the oldest modern human genome yet described. Now, another paper ...
glp menu logo outlined

Newsletter Subscription

* indicates required
Email Lists