Guided by the work of Rosalind Franklin, James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the the twisted-ladder structure of DNA in 1953, a finding that gave rise to the modern field of molecular biology. It was by understanding DNA’s double-helix form that science was able to begin unravelling the many mysteries of genetic…
Ever since researchers first discovered that bacterial immune systems could be hijacked to selectively change DNA in living creatures, CRISPR gene-editing technology has been limited by the boundaries of the cell wall. CRISPR allows scientists to cut and paste little bits of DNA, swapping out even single letters of…
The Bajau people of Malaysia and the Philippines are renowned for their free-diving abilities, often working eight-hour shifts in search of fish and other sea critters. Underwater sessions can last upwards of two minutes, with accumulated daily totals of breath-holding often reaching five hours. New research suggests…
Recent advancements in science and medicine have put cures within reach for diseases that have long plagued humankind.
Christopher Columbus reached the New World in 1492, but some experts say Polynesian explorers beat him to it. There’s little evidence to support this fringe theory, but scientists have pointed to the presence of sweet potatoes, a plant thought to be native to the Americas, in the South Pacific as potential proof. A…
India’s eighth largest state is seeking to build a blockchain-based DNA database of all 50 million of its citizens.
When the gene-editing technology CRISPR first made a splash back in 2012, it foretold a future in which curing diseases might simply involve snipping out problematic bits of genetic code. Of course, innovation is rarely so straightforward. As incredible as CRISPR is, it also has some pretty sizable flaws to overcome…
In the late 1990s, as Esteban Burchard was finishing up his medical training at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, newspaper headlines blared warnings about what appeared to be a growing asthma epidemic.
For nearly two years now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been quietly giving the go-ahead to a handful of crops that have been genetically engineered using CRISPR. Editing the DNA of people and animals may be controversial, but when it comes to plants, the agency has taken the stance that as long as the…
Last May, a journal published results suggesting that the revolutionary gene-editing technique CRISPR might actually be quite dangerous. The paper caused a bit of turmoil in the biotech world, which is looking to CRISPR as a major disease-fighting tool of the future. But it didn’t take long for the study to attract…
Last summer, a study claiming that the gene-editing technique CRISPR might actually be dangerous whipped labs around the biotech world into a frenzy. Researchers found that when they used CRISPR to cure blindness by changing DNA in mice, it resulted in not just a few but more than a thousand unintended effects on…
Not long ago, decrypting DNA was an expensive undertaking that could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, for $199 you can spit into a test tube and find out about your ancestry, your risk of developing Alzheimer’s, and even how likely you are to smell asparagus in your pee.
Here’s a riddle: If an alien life form is, well, alien, how will we know what it is? DNA and RNA are the building blocks of life on Earth, but the molecules of life might differ substantially on another planet. So if scientists combing, say, the potentially habitable waters of Jupiter’s moon Europa were to stumble…
There are approximately 10 million questions I’d like to ask my cat, Herbert. “Why do you chew on my purse?” “Why do you get scared when I lotion my hands?” “Do you love me?” “Do you hate me?” At the very top of the list however, is: “Can you tell me your life story?” Bert was plucked off the streets of Harlem a few…
Heath data is some of the most sensitive information out there, and modern life sometimes puts that information at risk of being exposed. Hackers could break into insurance company records and steal customer medical information. A hospital you’ve visited could experience a data breach. You could spit in a tube to find…
Pregnancy is hard on the body. But for women with two specific genetic variants, it may be especially difficult.
Earlier this month, when consumer genetic testing giant 23andMe announced plans to roll out the first consumer test for breast cancer risk, the news attracted some hefty criticism from the medical community. Sure, consumer DNA tests allow people to find out information about their health without a potentially pricey…
There may not be a single depression gene, but there’s no question that our genetic makeup is an important factor in whether or not we get depressed. And our sex, it turns out, can be a factor in how those genes are expressed. In men and women diagnosed with major depressive disorder, the same genes show the opposite…
It seems like pure science fiction. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly goes to space for nearly a year, comes back, and suddenly has turned into a mutant with different DNA from his twin. As Newsweek wrote, his DNA “changed in space.”
Netflix’s Jessica Jones might be a show about superpowers, genetic experiments, and surviving on Slim Jims, but it’s also got some real science in there. This was recently put to the test, as one character’s monologue about octopus DNA resulted in a massive Googling for information about cephalopods—prompting Jessica…
