synthetic biology

Scientists Launch Wild New Project to Build a Human Genome From Scratch

The medical charity behind the controversial new plan says the benefits outweigh the risks.

Biologists Just Created Solar-Powered Hamster Cells

Many experts believed it couldn't be done, but researchers in Japan have successfully introduced chloroplasts into hamster cells.

Biology Margherita Bassi

Image: Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Scientists Print Skin That’s More Human-Like Than Anything Before It

The bioengineered creation has the full thickness of natural skin and was able to speed healing and reduce scarring in animal experiments.

Health Ed Cara

Lab-Grown Chicken Is Closer to Your Plate With FDA Green-Light

Good Meat was the first "cultured meat" maker to get product approval anywhere in the world. Now the company is one step closer to selling its wares in the U.S.

Biology Lauren Leffer

FDA Finally Says Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat

The long-awaited green light is a big barrier removed for meat made outside of animals.

Climate Change Lauren Leffer

What’s the Most Dangerous Emerging Technology?

"What could go wrong? Soon we will be able to write any virus genome from scratch."

Tech News Daniel Kolitz

Using a DNA-Based ‘Computer,’ Scientists Get the Square Root of 900

Using a computer-like system made from engineered DNA, scientists have computed the square root of 900. Biologists have proposed using genetic material for performing computations since as early as 1994. Since then, they’ve found ways to store bits of information in DNA and manipulate those bits via the same rules of logic that computers use.…

Gadgets Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

DNA Could Be One of a Million Possible Genetic Molecules

There could be a million different structures with the ability to store genetic information, according to a recent paper. DNA stores the genetic information that describes all of Earth’s life, in the form of a twisted scaffold lined with a sequence composed of four data-encoding molecules. But is DNA the best way to store biological…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Could Protein Spun Like Cotton Candy Make Lab-Grown Steak Possible?

Synthetic meat products might come even closer to the texture of slaughtered meats with the help of what are essentially modified cotton candy machines. Scientists at universities and private companies are attempting to recreate the flavor and texture of animal-based meats using similar techniques to those used in biomedical labs. But plant-based meat analogs on…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Scientists Create E. Coli With Entirely Synthetic Genome

Scientists created a variant of the E. coli bacteria with an entirely synthetic genome, according to a new paper. Building and replacing the large entire genome yet was just one goal of the team from the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. They hoped that the resulting bacteria would use a…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

E. Coli Bacteria Made This Image of the Mona Lisa

Scientists created this picture of the Mona Lisa using genetically modified E. coli bacteria. Such teeny little artists! The Italian researchers weren’t just playing around with bacteria for fun. Rather, they were attempting to unite different attributes so they could control large populations of bacteria—perhaps to one day build microscopic transport devices, or even 3D…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Science Takes a Baby Step Toward Baby Northern White Rhinos

A team of scientists received a flurry of press attention this week when they announced they’d created rhino embryos in the lab—a step along the path to bringing the northern white rhino back from functional extinction. This is an important achievement, but no one breakthrough will save the northern white rhino despite what some headlines have…

Conservation Maddie Stone

Scientists Added Two New Letters to DNA’s Code

If you’ve taken a science class, you’re likely aware that DNA is the body’s instruction manual. But its language is only written in four letters: A, T, C, and G. Those who paid extra close attention will remember that RNA, the photocopy of the instructions that the cell actually uses, replaces the Ts with the…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Is Breast Milk Good for Grownups?

Today breast milk is recognized as a sort of liquid miracle for babies, but history is full of periods where people swapped in other things in its place. In the 15th century, it was cow and goat milk. In the 18th century, it was cereal or flour mixed with broth. More recently, it was baby…

Health Kristen V. Brown

Cyborg Bacteria Beat Plants at the Photosynthesis Game

Reading science news all day can be real grim. Animals are dying, the climate is changing, the nuke’s a coming, yadda yadda. But sometimes (in fact, often) scientists do something that’s just neat, important, and won’t keep you up at night—that is, if you’re cool with photosynthesizing cyborg bacteria. Photosynthesis is a process by which…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum

This Isn’t a Horror Movie: Scientists Are Turning Organs Into Paper Cranes

The new guy at work invites you over to his house. You feel uneasy. Sure, he’s a hard worker, a fast typer, and his intense focus quickly made him an indispensable coworker. But his scarred face seems to betray some violent past. His measured speech seems manufactured. Still, you can’t remember the last new friend…

Health Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Scientists Engineered Bacteria to Make Picture of Super Mario

Bacteria have had some pretty great PR, recently. Thanks to lots of new research about their importance to our bodies, they’re not really seen as soulless microscopic murderers anymore. They’re colorful, misunderstood beings living together outside the spotlight, freeloading in our guts in exchange for favors. In other words, they’re artists. Now they are, at…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Our Grandkids May Be Born From 3D-Printed Ovaries

Fertility has become a major target for regenerative medicine. What if, the thinking goes, science and medicine could be used to simply restore fertility to women who for one reason or another no longer have it? In mice, scientists have now done just that. In a new paper out Tuesday in Nature Communications, scientists at…

Tech News Kristen V. Brown

This Synthetic Bone Implant Could Replace Painful Marrow Transplants

Thanks to advances in medicine, bone marrow transplants are no longer the last resorts they once were. Every year, thousands of marrow transplants are performed, a common treatment for ailments from bone marrow disease to leukemia. But because they first require a patient undergo radiation to kill off any existing bone marrow stem cells, marrow…

Tech News Kristen V. Brown

Scientists Just Took a Major Step Toward Creating Synthetic Life

In 2008, researchers built the first artificial genome, a wonder of synthetic biology in which scientists generated all 582,970 base pairs of the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium’s genome entirely from scratch. It was an unparalleled scientific achievement, requiring scientists to carefully design 101 unique DNA fragments so that their codes would overlap and stick together, then…

Tech News Kristen V. Brown

synthetic biology

Scientists Launch Wild New Project to Build a Human Genome From Scratch

Biologists Just Created Solar-Powered Hamster Cells

Scientists Print Skin That’s More Human-Like Than Anything Before It

Lab-Grown Chicken Is Closer to Your Plate With FDA Green-Light

FDA Finally Says Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat

What’s the Most Dangerous Emerging Technology?

Using a DNA-Based ‘Computer,’ Scientists Get the Square Root of 900

DNA Could Be One of a Million Possible Genetic Molecules

Could Protein Spun Like Cotton Candy Make Lab-Grown Steak Possible?

Scientists Create E. Coli With Entirely Synthetic Genome

E. Coli Bacteria Made This Image of the Mona Lisa

Science Takes a Baby Step Toward Baby Northern White Rhinos

Scientists Added Two New Letters to DNA’s Code

Is Breast Milk Good for Grownups?

Cyborg Bacteria Beat Plants at the Photosynthesis Game

This Isn’t a Horror Movie: Scientists Are Turning Organs Into Paper Cranes

Scientists Engineered Bacteria to Make Picture of Super Mario

Our Grandkids May Be Born From 3D-Printed Ovaries

This Synthetic Bone Implant Could Replace Painful Marrow Transplants

Scientists Just Took a Major Step Toward Creating Synthetic Life

Judge Kills Lawsuit Against Infamous Study That Might Have Increased Teen Suicides

Artemis 2 Day 3: Follow the Mission With Our Live Updates 🔴

Researchers Discover How to Add Psilocybin, DMT, and Other Psychedelics to Tobacco

Fake Videos Are Already Spreading After Two US Air Force Planes Go Down Near Iran

We’re Obsessed With the Meta Fits on These New Star Wars Toys

Behold These Breathtaking Views of Earth Captured by the Artemis 2 Astronauts

‘Chainsaw Man’ Briefly Returns in ‘Dandadan’

Meta Smart Glasses Can Now Track All the Food You Put Into Your Mouth

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The Best Gadgets of March 2026

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DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

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Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

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