Genetics
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Genetics
Scientists Say: eDNA
Animals may escape traps or nets, but they often leave DNA behind in their environment, giving scientists important clues.
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Microbes
New date for U.S. arrival of the AIDS virus
A new study shows that HIV started circulating at least a decade earlier than previously realized.
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Genetics
Human DNA carries hints of unknown extinct ancestor
A new study suggests people today carry genetic traces of now-extinct species unknown to science.
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Plants
Young sunflowers keep time
The plants don’t just use light to follow the sun. An internal clock helps their stems bend as the sun moves across the sky.
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Genetics
Explainer: What is epigenetics?
Epigenetics is the study of molecular “switches” that turn genes on and off. Tweak those switches and there could be big health consequences.
By Janet Raloff -
Archaeology
The first farmers were two groups, not one
The humans that began farming 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent may have been two cultures living side-by-side.
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Genetics
Wolf species shake-up
A genetic study says red wolves and eastern wolves may really be mixtures of coyotes and gray wolves, not distinct species.
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Genetics
How fake sugar can lead to overeating
Scientists have found that fruit flies and mice eat more after consuming food laced with a popular fake sugar.
By Dinsa Sachan -
Environment
Something in plastics may be weakening kids’ teeth
The body can confuse some pollutants for a natural hormone. Researchers in France now find such pollutant exposures in childhood may lead cells to make defective tooth enamel.
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Genetics
Scientists Say: DNA sequencing
All of us have our own individual DNA. Now, scientists can determine what each individual strand is made of — a process called DNA sequencing.
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Genetics
GM mosquitoes cut rate of viral disease in Brazil
Adults males carrying the altered gene cannot father young that survive to adulthood. That’s when they suck blood — and can transmit disease.
By Susan Milius -
Life
How a moth went to the dark side
Peppered moths and some butterflies are icons of evolution. Now scientists have found a gene responsible for making them so.