Ricki Lewis
How cats got their stripes: The mystery of color patterns in mammals
In 1902’s Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling famously explained how the leopard got his spots in what would today be deemed an ...
Evoking Jeff Goldblum’s ‘The Fly’: Does growing human ‘brains-in-a-dish’ and creating chimeras cross a bioethical line?
Bits of human brain growing in a lab dish can reveal a great deal about how a disease begins and ...
3-years and counting: GLP contributing writer and geneticist Ricki Lewis highlights 100 articles on the COVID pandemic
Three years ago, health officials in China announced the first cases of infection with a “novel coronavirus.” Dr. Zhang Jixian reported ...
Live to 150? That’s what some AI algorithms claim is possible. What does the science say?
We’re obsessed with aging. In the quest to prolong life while remaining healthy, people have tried everything from turtle soup ...
How Freddie Mercury got his voice: It wasn’t his teeth
Was Freddie Mercury's magnificent voice aided by a genetic defect? ...
Naturally saffron-flavored rice? Here’s how scientists are using genetically modified tobacco and lemon to recreate the world’s most expensive spice
Biotechnology mass-produces valuable molecules from nature, from drugs to textiles to a jellyfish protein that lights up most anything a ...
‘Lessons in Chemistry’: New Apple TV series based on best-selling book has opportunity to skewer sexism while challenging the ‘nerd stereotype’
I loved Lessons in Chemistry, the hit novel by Bonnie Garmus, and I’m thrilled that Apple TV+ picked it up ...
Men can’t do Zumba. Is it in their genes?
Zumba saved me during the pandemic. Prior to COVID, I took 3 or 4 of the ATP-burning classes a week ...
Diversity, inclusion and the Human Pangenome Project: Why capturing human genome diversity in our 4-letter language is such a big deal
“Pan” has several meanings. As a noun, it refers to “a round metal container that often has a long handle ...
Gene therapy approvals now at four with treatments for inherited anemia and degenerative brain condition — but costs are stratospheric. Why?
The FDA recently approved two gene therapies with hefty price tags, the first for an inherited anemia and the second ...
Here is the story behind Svante Pääbo’s Nobel Prize for sequencing the genome of Neandertals and discovering another ancestor, the Denisovans
I was thrilled to learn of the awarding of the 2022 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine to Svante Pääbo, ...
Viewpoint: In the post Roe v Wade world, what changes should a biology textbook writer make to address the medical repercussions of Dobbs?
I’ve published 38 editions of several college life science textbooks since 1982. All have covered human prenatal development and assisted ...
Australia’s rabbit invasion: DNA analysis reveals how the European rabbit ‘colonized’ a continent
COVID and monkeypox seem to have come out of nowhere and exploded across continents. But the phenomenon of natural selection ...
Back from the dead? How OrganEx technology revived pigs dead for one hour, and why it could revolutionize transplants
Transplant medicine could take a giant leap forward if donor organs could soak up oxygen for longer and decay delayed ...
Revising my genetics textbook: A PC exercise or an appropriate evolution of science and sensitivity? Or both.
Beyoncé is facing a lot of criticism for using an ableist slur in her new co-written song Renaissance. She used ...
Lax peer review + social media + confusing and misinterpreted data: Why so many COVID-era studies presented incomplete science
The pandemic has upended many practices, among them peer review of technical medical and scientific articles. Lax peer review + ...
The hapless male Y chromosome finally has a purpose
I’ve never been fond of the human Y chromosome. Yes, the all-important SRY gene sets the early embryo on a path towards ...
DNA and gene editing are the real stars of the new Jurassic Park movie
In Jurassic World: Dominion, the science is mostly accurate, the bioethics message obvious, and the plot adheres to Isaac Asimov’s ...
When blood relatives hook up: Is ‘Genetic Sexual Attraction’ really a thing?
Academic sex researchers will ramp up investigation of genetic sexual attraction ...
Anosmia and COVID: Does loss of smell from coronavirus signal more serious neurological issues ahead?
The sudden inability to smell and taste that comes with COVID is startling and difficult to describe. I was lucky ...
Did you get a DNA ancestry kit for Father’s Day? Here are some things to consider before spitting in that vial
The media tales of familial surprises are the tip of an iceberg ...
Who is your real parent? Our Father on Netflix depicts the dark side of ‘secret serial sperm donation’. My birth has a similar origin but with a more hopeful twist
"Our Father" is difficult to watch, especially if you’ve suddenly discovered as an adult that you have a never-known family ...
I write about the history of genetics. Buffalo racially-motivated massacre refocuses attention on the dark side of the 100-year old eugenics movement
Whenever I work on a new edition of my human genetics textbook and reach the section on eugenics, which flourished ...
We have no idea what lies ahead with COVID
Recently on the local news, New York governor Kathy Hochul confidently proclaimed that we would not experience another COVID surge ...
Roma ‘gypsy’ people of Europe have long held a fascination for geneticists. Here’s why
The Roma people have long held a special fascination for population geneticists who study the frequencies of genetic diseases. The ...
Unveiling the genome of the ancient dingo — whose DNA is in every dog in the world
“Maybe a dingo ate your baby!” suggested Elaine Benis (Julia Louis Dreyfus) in an episode of Seinfeld in season 3, ...
Universal ‘pan coronavirus vaccine’? Scientists believe it’s possible within 2-3 years
Masks are coming off and we’re venturing back into the world, thanks largely to vaccines and natural immunity. Still, viral ...
‘Here, CRISPR critter’: How to gene edit a hypo-allergenic cat
I pity the 15 percent of the human population that cannot live with a cat, due to allergy. I’ve seen ...
