New Scientist
Building synthetic life: Yeast experiments pave way for new drugs, treatments
The team that built the first synthetic yeast chromosome [in 2014] has now added five more chromosomes, totaling roughly a ...
Corn genetically engineered to neutralize toxic mold would be boon for health of poor women in Africa
It’s a silent killer lurking in common foods. A carcinogenic toxin made by [mold] kills thousands around the world and ...
Chinese scientists repair viable human embryos with CRISPR for first time
A team in China has corrected genetic mutations in at least some of the cells in three normal human embryos ...
When loud noises interrupt conversations, your brain fills in the blanks
Noise is everywhere, but that’s OK. Your brain can still keep track of a conversation in the face of revving ...
Vegetarian Neanderthals? Turns out they weren’t all meat eaters
Neanderthals living in prehistoric Belgium enjoyed their meat – but the Neanderthals who lived in what is now northern Spain ...
Neanderthals’ legacy genes: Some people taller, protect against schizophrenia
Neanderthals are still affecting what illnesses some people develop, how tall they are and how their immune systems work, despite ...
Golfing bumblebees? Amazing video of insect learning could spark artificial intelligence research
Bumblebees have learned to push a ball into a hole to get a reward, stretching what was thought possible for ...
Meditation may reduce anxiety, stress levels by altering brain’s white matter
Researchers believe they have created the world’s first mouse model of meditation by using light to trigger brain activity similar ...
Is there a metabolic on-off switch that could prevent chronic fatigue syndrome?
Evidence is mounting that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is caused by the body swapping to less efficient ways of generating ...
Cholesterol and heart disease risk could be lowered with a single injection
A one-off injection could one day lower your cholesterol levels for the rest of your life. People born with natural ...
Evolution of the mind: How termite colonies are models of the human brain
[Editor's note: Excerpts from an interview with Daniel Dennett, cognitive scientist and philosopher at Tufts University, who recently wrote From Bacteria ...
Two baby girls with leukemia ‘cured’ using gene-editing therapy
Two children treated with gene-edited cells to kill their cancers are both doing well more than a year later. The ...
Brief oasis of oxygen could have supported complex life 2.3 billion years ago
Earth is thought to have begun to develop its modern, oxygen-rich atmosphere as recently as 800 million years ago. This ...
Healthy aging promoted by tweaking ‘old blood’
The effects of blood on aging were first discovered in experiments that stitched young and old mice together so that ...
Mini brains grown from teeth stem cells reveal secrets of sociability
Can tiny brains grown in a dish reveal the secrets of sociability? Balls of brain tissue generated from stem cells ...
New RNAi spray formulation protects plants from viral infection for 20 days
...[A] team at the University of Queensland in Australia has managed to achieve long-lasting gene silencing inside plant cells. They ...
Viruses have evolved so that men suffer worse symptoms than women
Some viruses might cause weaker symptoms in women than in men because it makes them more likely to spread. Many ...
Motherhood changes your brain to connect better with newborn
Elseline Hoekzema at Leiden University in the Netherlands and her team compared brain scans of 25 first-time mothers with those ...
Discovered ancient footprints hint males had multiple “wives”
Laetoli in northern Tanzania is the site of iconic ancient footprints, capturing the moment – 3.66 million years ago – ...
CRISPR gene editing human trials in China and US offer hope for countless lives
In 2015, a little girl called Layla was treated with gene-edited immune cells that eliminated all signs of the leukemia ...
Want to save the planet from environmental disaster? Stop buying organic food.
[F]arming is the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, only slightly behind heating and electricity. ... The one ...
How gene therapy might treat diseases once thought untreatable
What is gene therapy? [Gene therapy] is a way to fix a gene defect in a person’s cells. One way ...
WHO announces that Zika is no longer a public health emergency – it’s worse
Zika virus no longer represents a public health emergency, the World Health Organisation announced on [Nov. 18]. On the face ...
Why Neanderthals did not survive side-by-side with humans
The Neanderthals, who once colonized Europe and Asia, became extinct about 30,000 years ago – but not before interbreeding with ...
Do GMOs boost yields? ‘Superwheat’ set for field trials boosts harvests by 20%
Genetically modified crops could help us grow more food on less land in a world struggling to cope with climate ...
Brain implants could enhance memory and intelligence
If you could implant a device in your brain to enhance your intelligence, would you do it? [Bryan Johnson, the ...
Obese women give birth to ‘biologically older’ babies
Women who are overweight while pregnant are more likely to have babies who are biologically older than those born to ...
Older women who underwent IVF have fewer babies with abnormalities
Higher maternal age and assisted reproduction are both linked to congenital anomalies, including Down’s syndrome, heart defects and cleft palates, ...
