New Scientist
DNA evidence suggests humans drove New Zealand bird species to extinction
DNA says we are guilty. Early human settlers probably did wipe out the moas of New Zealand. Moa DNA suggests ...
First test to predict Alzheimer’s years in advance
The world's first blood test to predict Alzheimer's disease before symptoms occur has been developed. The test identifies 10 chemicals ...
Triple-threat GM rice protects against drought, salty soils and lack of fertilizer
For the first time, a single strain of genetically modified rice has been developed to handle drought, salty soils and ...
Superfemale mice have secret male DNA
Even by mouse standards, the African pygmy mouse is tiny. It weighs just 5 grams, and is little more than ...
Secrets of a cold–It helps explain why we have skin and bones
Next time you have a cold, rather than cursing, maybe you should thank the virus for making your skin. Genes ...
Evolutionary civil war of sperm production
"I thought, 'Oh my god, I have mixed all the samples, I have made a massive mistake here'. And I ...
Sequencing genes IDs rare illnesses and may, eventually, help with other health issues
Born prematurely, Lillian Yuska struggled to feed, and she suffered from chronic gastrointestinal problems and repeated infections. After years of ...
Ancestry of first Americans revealed by a boy’s genome
We may never know who the Anzick child was. Why he died, just 3 years old, in the foothills of ...
Acid bath stem cell method may work for human cells
Scientists may have used the newly-discovered environmental stress method for inducing pluripotency in human cells. This could change everything ...
Ouch! Epigenetic changes dial your pain threshold up or down
If you flinch where others merely frown, you might want to take a look at your lifestyle. That's because environmental ...
Neanderthal DNA traces found in African people
Call it humanity's unexpected U-turn. One of the biggest events in the history of our species is the exodus out ...
Acid bath reverts adult cells to pluripotent state
A little stress is all it took to make new life from old. Adult cells have been given the potential ...
New era of fast genetic engineering
Sequencing genomes has become easy. Understanding them remains incredibly hard. While the trickle of sequence information has turned into a ...
Infectious cancer contains 11k-year-old dog genes
Call it the Methuselah mutt. There are genes from a dog that lived 11,000 years ago in an infectious cancer ...
Giant leaps of evolution make cancer cells deadly
The complex invasion of multiple body tissues that occurs when cancer metastasizes is driven by huge leaps of evolution. Maybe ...
Diet can explain half of racial blood pressure puzzle
By studying metabolites in urine samples from 1559 US citizens, researchers identified differences between the two groups. As well as ...
Human meddling will spur the evolution of new species
A decade ago, ecologist Chris Thomas warned that climate change would wipe out a quarter of all species. Now he ...
Will public trust in personalized medicine suffer, an ethicist wonders
23andMe's personal DNA test kits have helped increase public interest in personalized medicine. But after the FDA demanded they stop ...
Preparing students to meet their genes in the classroom
How much information do you need before deciding whether to have your genome sequenced? In 2010, the University of California, ...
Stonehenge Man provides rare look at face of British prehistory
Tourists entering English Heritage's new £27 million visitor centre at Stonehenge will quickly confront its most spectacular exhibit – a ...
Will 2014 be year of the 1-million-year-old genome?
Dinosaurs resurrected using preserved DNA still only exist in Jurassic Park, but we're making great strides in sequencing the genomes ...
Aging might be reversible
Imagine if we could turn back time. A team that has identified a new way in which cells age has ...
Smart genes: Nature more than nurture determines exam success
A controversial study on twins claims to provide strong evidence that genetic inheritance has a bigger impact on exam success ...
How to grow brains in a lab
Bioengineers dream of growing spare parts for our worn-out or diseased bodies. They have already succeeded with some tissues, but ...
400,000 year-old human DNA revolutionizing view of evolution
Deep inside the Atapuerca cave system in northern Spain, 30 metres beneath the surface, lies the Sima de los Huesos, ...
New techniques swap out codons across the genome
The language of life has been rewritten. A bacterium has had its genome recoded so that one of its genetic ...
Earth’s first life may have sprung up in ice
If you thought life evolved in bubbling hot springs, think again. Pieces of RNA have been made that can copy ...
‘Bubble kid’ success puts gene therapy back on track
Severe combined immunodeficiency was the first condition to be treated with gene therapy more than 20 years ago. A virus was ...
