Summary: A new study sheds light on why we tend to go gray as we age. Researchers found melanocyte stem cells get stuck as we grow older, losing the ability…
Category: Genetics
98% of the human genome: We are finally beginning to understand the mystery of ‘dark matter’ junk DNA
Less than 2% of the three billion letters of the human genome are dedicated to proteins. Only around 20,000 distinct protein-coding genes were found to exist in the long lines of molecules…
Viewpoint: GMO crops are key to sustainable farming—why are some scientists afraid to talk about them?
Molecular genetic engineering has spawned a strange new allergy. No, not the kind of allergy that causes hives or wheezing; rather, an aversion to mentioning the role of genetic engineering in…
Does conventional livestock farming use drugs at ‘unnecessarily high levels’, endangering human health, as activist critics claim?
Livestock farming generates some striking external impacts: while production provides 30% of human dietary protein, it occupies 75% of agricultural land, emits 14–17% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, and uses…
Viewpoint: Do you believe in magic? Many nutritional supplements are impure, ineffective, unsafe — and unregulated, and that needs to change
Herbal dietary supplements (also known as nutritional supplements, but correctly called botanicals), once dismissed as hippie fare, are now widely advertised for their supposed potential to cure a variety of…
50 years ago, scientists sequenced a gene for the first time
Molecular biology’s flower child — Science News, January 6, 1973 During the past several years, some artificial genes have been synthesized…. But no one had unraveled a real gene that dictates…
Squid edit their RNA to keep cellular supply lines moving in the cold
WASHINGTON — Squid don’t have thermostats to control ocean temperatures. Instead, the cephalopods tweak RNA to adjust to frigid waters, a study suggests. Usually, genetic instructions encoded in DNA are…
A natural gene drive could steer invasive rodents on islands to extinction
In the battle against the invasive house mouse on islands, scientists are using the rodent’s own genes against it. With the right tweaks, introducing a few hundred genetically altered mice…
DNA is providing new clues to why COVID-19 hits people differently
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the mercurial nature of the coronavirus has been on display. Some people get mild, cold-like illnesses or even have no symptoms when infected, while…
How fungi make potent toxins that can contaminate food
Food contaminated with fungi can be an inconvenience at best and life-threatening at worst. But new research shows that removing just one protein can leave some fungal toxins high and…
