genetics, Tag

Two different models predict two totally different futures. On the left, catastrophic extinction. On the right, happy bats. Click to enlarge Yesterday a UN supercommittee of 145 scientists from 50 countries declared that...

He Jiankui has now presented his controversial work at a gene editing summit in Hong Kong. CRISPR expert Helen O’Neill of University College London was there

The Tibetan Plateau is a tough environment so we thought humans arrived only about 12,000 years ago, but it seems someone was there 40,000 to 30,000 years ago

Here’s a tantalizing bit of gene research. Scientists were able to switch off a central gene in the nucleus of a mouse cell. That in turn meant the mouse’s mitochondria started failing (I’m going to be talking...

Five years ago, millions of sea stars off the west coast of North America were killed by a mysterious virus that caused the animals to lose limbs and liquefy, with several species under serious threat of extinction...

There were domestic dogs in North America 10,200 years ago, according to a re-examination of an ancient dog skeleton that looks like a small English setter

… After half a billion million years of climate change, I’m shocked, shocked I tell you, that life on Earth (and specifically corals) have so many ways to cope with the climate changing. After all, it’s...

We know almost nothing about the enormous beaked whales because they spend so much time deep underwater, but a new DNA technique could unmask them

Researchers spent four years looking for Chinese giant salamanders and only found 24 – and that’s not even the worst bit of news

All the green-blooded lizards in the world live in New Guinea, but it turns out the trait has evolved there independently at least four times

The world’s amphibians are dying in swathes because of the lethal chytrid fungus, and it seems the epidemic had its origins on the Korean peninsula

Environmentalist Mark Lynas, who once destroyed GM crops and then made headlines by ending his opposition, is stepping up his call for reason to triumph  

Genetic testing has revealed the true identity of an exceptional mummy found in Chile's Atacama Desert, a skeleton so strange that some have claimed it as evidence of alien life...

A genetically engineered yeast makes beer that tastes of hops, without using any hops – and it could make beer cheaper and more environmentally friendly

Scientists have discovered that a simple genetic modification may result in crops needing up to 25 percent less water than unaltered plants to produce the same yield...