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DNA as a crime fighting tool: Why we may be in danger of putting too much faith in it

Clive Thompson | 
What happens to a society when there’s suddenly a new way to identify people—to track them as they move around ...
3-10-2019 louise smith halfway brook

DNA of the dead: Genetic testing companies offering to use envelopes licked by the deceased

Sarah Zhang | 
In the past year, genealogists have been abuzz about the possibility of getting DNA out of old stamps and envelopes ...
3-17-2019 illustrated police news jack the ripper

Has genetic analysis identified Jack the Ripper?

David Adam | 
Forensic scientists say they have finally fingered the identity of Jack the Ripper, the notorious serial killer who terrorized the ...
3-9-2019 dna synthesis

Stealing DNA sequences? It can be done with an audio recorder

Emily Waltz | 
Engineers at the University of California say they have demonstrated how easy it would be to snoop on biotech companies ...
3-3-2019 jpeg

Crime scene conundrum: Your DNA can wind up on something you never even touched

Tina Saey | 
A 10-second handshake could transfer a person’s DNA to an object that the person never touched. In handshaking experiments, people ...
evolution

Why human evolution is far from over—and may be speeding up

Laurence D. Hurst | 
Global studies of human DNA show that natural selection continues to change who we are ...
3-4-2019 istock medium

Crime scene investigators couldn’t tell identical twins’ DNA apart. Until now

Carl Zimmer | 
One night in November 1999, a 26-year-old woman was raped in a parking lot in Grand Rapids, Mich. Police officers ...
2-20-2019 bbe c e e a

Why you shouldn’t expect the DNA you send to companies like 23andMe to remain private forever

Erin Brodwin | 
The data you shared with a genetic testing startup like 23andMe is private — for now. But maintaining that privacy, which rests ...
2-21-2019 chinese kid studying maths

Searching for ‘hidden talents’: Chinese parents turn to genetic tests for their toddlers

Michael Standaert | 
Fears of seeing their children fall behind their peers have left Chinese parents searching for anything to give them a ...
newborn screening

Newborns and genome sequencing: Do we sacrifice privacy in the name of health?

Ricki Lewis | 
If history provides a lesson, routine newborn genomic sequencing won’t come without a fight ...
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Synthetic doubling of life’s DNA alphabet suggests there’s nothing ‘magical’ about life on Earth

Matthew Warren | 
The DNA of life on Earth naturally stores its information in just four key chemicals — guanine, cytosine, adenine and ...
2-16-2019 de gelijkenissen tussen donorkind marsha en spermadokter jan karbaat

Fertility doctor suspected of fathering 200 children will have DNA tested, court rules

Rob Picheta | 
A fertility doctor suspected to have fathered scores of people by secretly swapping donors' sperm for his own will have ...
2-12-2019 dji creditjacobdavis

Ancient African DNA reveals insights before slavery, colonialism

Bridget Alex, Elizabeth Sawchuk | 
[B]ones between 5,000 and 15,000 years old — surrounding the start of the Holocene, our current geologic epoch — can ...
2-11-2019 complex disease inset

‘Google of sorts’: DNA database harnesses power of genome sequences

Sarah Zhang | 
In 2015, scientists discovered a pig in China that would set off a frantic, worldwide search. The pig carried bacteria ...
dnax

Many people are confused and concerned about human gene editing. They might just need a ‘better understanding’ of how it works

Ricki Lewis | 
Genome editing has struck a public nerve in a more profound way than most new medical technologies ...
image Neanderthal genome

Tracking Neanderthal DNA in modern humans: There’s been little change in 45,000 years

Diana Kwon | 
Neanderthals, modern humans’ closest evolutionary relatives, have been extinct for thousands of years. But due to interbreeding between the two ...
1-21-2019 ancient dna

Ancient DNA answering previously ‘unresolvable’ questions about extinct species

Gideon Lewis-Kraus | 
The idea that [the answer to ancient questions] might be preserved in [the DNA of] old specimens has been around ...
hands holding

Alzhiemer’s could be triggered by ‘genomic mosaicism’

Jerold Chun | 
Certain inherited genetic mutations lead to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but they are relatively rare. A recent study from my laboratory, however, shows ...
hacienda

DNA test spurs arrest of nurse accused of impregnating vegetative patient

Jason Hanna, Keith Allen | 
A 36-year-old nurse has been arrested on suspicion of impregnating a woman in a vegetative state who unexpectedly gave birth ...
1-14-2019 gwas adn

DNA as ‘fortune teller’? There are limits as to what genes can predict

Kevin Mitchell | 
Is our future written in our genes? … King’s College London geneticist Robert Plomin, in his new book, Blueprint, presents DNA ...
dna test

I’m a geneticist. A DNA test uncovered a half-sister and sparked painful questions

Ricki Lewis | 
My own discovery is so overwhelming that I can’t talk about it much, even though my new half-sister has possibly ...
Screen Shot at AM

Genetics pioneer James Watson stripped of final honorary titles over race views

Ricki Lewis | 
It's the latest chapter of the dark side of Dr. Watson ...
cc babyseq x

Are we ready for the ethical issues surrounding newborn genetic screening?

Ed Cara | 
In the not-too-distant future, it will be possible to get a complete readout of a person’s genetics with ease, even ...
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The rise and fall of genetic determinism

Ken Richardson | 
We’ve all seen the stark headlines: “Being Rich and Successful Is in Your DNA” (Guardian, July 12); “A New Genetic ...
dna

Why 2018 was such a big year for DNA data

Antonio Regalado | 
These were some of the surprising new uses of DNA information that emerged over the last 12 months as genetic ...
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Bad decision: Did your genes make you do it?

Nathaniel Scharping | 
Studies have picked out groups of genes associated with intelligence, academic achievement, criminal activity and other life outcomes. It now ...
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