John Timmer
Fear of ‘foreign’ genes in GMOs? Turns out Nature produces transgenic sweet potatoes
One of the most frequently mentioned issues with GMO foods is a vague concern about bringing genes from distantly related ...
How to weigh enormous promise, potential danger of CRISPR/Cas9 technology
A technique for editing genes while they reside in intact chromosomes has been a real breakthrough. Literally. In 2013, Science ...
Are Americans ready to resurrect the once ubiquitous ‘spreading chesnut tree’?
The relationship between the US public and genetically modified organisms is a bit ambiguous. That may change thanks to work taking ...
Newly discovered ancient human skeleton contains lost Neanderthal DNA
Another week, another ancient human genome. We just recently covered the oldest modern human genome yet described. Now, another paper ...
Promising new diabetes treatment overcomes negative side effects
In Type 1 diabetes, the body's immune system destroys the cells that produce insulin, leaving your body unable to make ...
Memories of positive associations get written onto DNA
Another study adds to the growing list of experiements in which epigenetics appears involved in the process of locking memories ...
Biological logic gate built by splitting viral gene
The following is an edited excerpt. In recent years, researchers in the messy world of biology have been able to ...
We broke the tomato, and we’re using science to fix it
The following is an edited excerpt. Thanks to decades of breeding, the modern agricultural tomato has a lot of properties ...
Why would a biotech company keep a secret herd of goats?
The typical image of a modern biological research lab involves high-tech machinery and table-sized microscopes; at most, there might be ...
Complex behaviors driven by remarkably simple genetics
Humans engage in a lot of complex behaviors, but many of them are learned. Genetics gives us a nervous system ...
Bacterial “immune system” used to engineer human DNA in human cells
Precisely engineering the genome of human cells remains largely in the realm of science fiction. It's possible, with the right virus, ...
Bats evolved to fix DNA from damage caused by flight
[N]ow, thanks to our ability to sequence genomes, some researchers have provided a new picture of how bats manage to ...
Activists in UK plan to trash crop experiment
For researchers at the UK's Rothamsted research center, the past few weeks must have felt like a train wreck in ...
We’re all mutants now
The field of study called population genetics has played a critical role in the development of modern biology, helping unite ...