Popular Science
Can organisms evolve the ability to evolve?
A new study finds that bacteria, like the species that spreads lyme disease, may have evolved the ability to evolve ...
Genetics in the Caribbean show marks of Atlantic slave trade
The Caribbean's complex history has given the area more than diverse languages and delicious food. The indigenous South Americans, Europeans ...
How a gene for fair skin spread across India
Cover Girl, Maybelline, are you listening? A new study of skin color in South Asians finds they have enormous diversity, ...
Your ancestors probably didn’t crawl
You have to crawl before you walk… unless you don’t. While crawling is considered a major developmental milestone in most ...
Dogs (and humans) might have some of their older sibling’s cells
Here's a mystery: A golden retriever gives birth to a litter of puppies. It's not her first birth, and something's ...
Mysteries of autism and schizophrenia unlocked by new cell study techniques
When Feng Zhang was in graduate school, he discovered that the tools for splicing new genes into living cells were ...
Sequencing genomes of entire microcosmic ecosystems
Viruses are the most abundant entities on the planet—and among the most mysterious. Mya Breitbart, a microbial ecologist at the ...
Researchers find a gene for obesity
Over four years, 1,200 pigs were given nearly unlimited access to food to see how much they'd eat, how often, ...
How having three parents leads to disease-free kids
This summer, government health officials in the United Kingdom made headlines by announcing that they will let scientists create babies ...
Giving up the impossible dream of genetic privacy could help everyone
In January, scientists scared the world by using public information to find the names behind five people’s anonymous, public DNA ...
The science and troubling ethics of gene therapy
Why is progress on gene therapy—the treatment of genetic disorders by giving sick people doses of the healthy genes they ...
What’s the point of sex?
This may seem obvious. But in evolutionary terms, the benefits of sexual reproduction are not immediately clear. Male rhinoceros beetles ...
Mouse skin cells transformed into viable eggs, sperm, and baby mice
After a decade of work, the two biologists have developed a way to turn mice's skin cells into "pre-egg" and ...
Male turkey attractiveness is all in the gene expression
For male wild turkeys, reproduction is an all-family effort. Less attractive males often don't get to mate, but they're still ...
Twin studies suggest connection between genetics and spirtuality
I am frequently asked by journalists to recall the most surprising finding of our twin studies. The study of religion ...
Herpes virus explodes its genetic material into host
Scientists have long theorized that the herpes virus is so stuffed with genetic material that it explodes its genetic material straight out ...
Researchers suggest language may have evolved earlier than thought
Humans and Neanderthals share a common ancestor, likely Homo heidelbergensis, a species we diverged from as many as 400,000 years ago ...
Biologists engineer custom flu vaccine in a week
The following is an excerpt. A copy of the genetic code of an H7N9 avian flu—similar to, but not exactly ...
Forget genetic privacy—DNA should be open-source
No one’s DNA has ever been private, writes Pop Sci’s Erin Biba—we spray it everywhere when our skin cells slough ...
What if Darwin had never existed?
The following is an excerpt. What would a world without Darwin look like? Many have argued that science would have ...
Laser zaps away cocaine addiction in genetically engineered rats
The following is an edited excerpt. Aiming laser light at the portion of the brain associated with impulse control could ...
Scientists engineer extreme bacteria to make fuel from carbon dioxide
University of Georgia researchers recently used the mighty Pyrococcus furiosus, which usually eats carbohydrates and lives in super-heated waters or ...
Can genetics solve France’s twin rape mystery?
The following is an excerpt. A pair of identical twins is currently being detained in the French city of Marseille for six ...
A topically applied skin lotion that modifies your genes
Future genetic therapy could be as simple as applying a topical lotion, with nanoscale compounds soaking through your epidermis to ...
