Genetics
- Health & Medicine
Toddler now thrives after prenatal treatment for a genetic disease
Ayla was treated before birth for the rare, life-threatening Pompe disease. Now a thriving 16-month-old toddler, her treatments will still need to continue.
- Chemistry
Forensic scientists are gaining an edge on crime
Advances in forensic science are helping to recover invisible fingerprints and identify missing people from bits of tissue or bone.
- Genetics
For some kids, their rock-star hair comes naturally
A variant of a gene involved in hair-shaft formation was linked to most of the uncombable-hair-syndrome cases analyzed in a recent study.
- Health & Medicine
Examining Neandertal and Denisovan DNA wins a 2022 Nobel Prize
Svante Pääbo figured out how to examine the genetic material from these hominid ‘cousins’ of modern humans.
- Animals
Living mysteries: This critter has 38 times more DNA than you do
The genomes of salamanders are bloated with genetic “parasites.” That extra DNA slows down their lives and strands them in perpetual childhood.
- Archaeology
Rats can chronicle human history
Rats have lived alongside people for thousands of years. Now, scientists can study the rats and their leavings to learn more about ourselves.
- Genetics
Scientists Say: DNA
Short for deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA is the molecule that determines how each living thing looks and works.
- Animals
A dog’s breed doesn’t say much about its behavior
Many people associate dog breeds with specific behavioral traits. But breed appears to account for only about 9 percent of behavioral differences.
- Animals
Losing some genes may explain how vampire bats can live on blood
Loss of 13 genes active in other bats could support the vampires’ blood-eating strategies and adaptations.
- Animals
Infected caterpillars become zombies that climb to their deaths
By tampering with genes involved in vision, a virus can send caterpillars on a doomed quest for sunlight.
- Animals
Surprise! Sixteen tiny wasp species found masquerading as one
Scientists used new and old tools to overturn 160-year-old ideas about this wasp. They show you can’t tell a wasp by its looks.
- Health & Medicine
Sickle-cell gene therapies offer hope — and challenges
Doctor Erica Esrick discusses existing treatments and an ongoing clinical trial for a gene therapy to treat sickle cell disease.
