Another day, another wildly mischaracterized paper going viral online, eroding science literacy, exacerbating chemophobia, and making our jobs as scientists harder. If people didn’t scrape PubMed or academic websites for press…
Category: Genetics
Freeze-drying turned a woolly mammoth’s DNA into 3-D ‘chromoglass’
Beef jerky and some woolly mammoths have at least one thing in common: Drying turns their DNA into super-tough glass. This glassy DNA is so stable that it preserved the…
Viewpoint: Rockefeller Foundation and other advocacy organizations argue agricultural production ‘hides’ the ‘true’ cost of food, favoring big corporations and wealthy and wasteful countries to the planet’s detriment. Here’s the nuance behind the inflammatory rhetoric
The first battle in President Lydon Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” launched in 1964, was figuring out how to measure it. A Social Security Administration employee, Mollie Orshansky, won the battle,…
Delaying menopause? Why keeping ovaries working longer could potentially prevent age-related diseases
The ovaries, in particular, appear to be connected to virtually every aspect of a woman’s health. They also abruptly stop performing their primary role in midlife. Once that happens, a…
Oxytocin’s Link to Obesity and Postnatal Depression
Summary: A new study has identified the TRPC5 gene as a cause of obesity, behavioral issues, and postnatal depression. Researchers found that missing or impaired TRPC5 genes disrupt oxytocin neurons,…
Viewpoint: Darwin’s ‘Descent of Man’ is both deeply disturbing and more relevant than ever
Charles Darwin’s Descent of Man is full of unexpected delights — such as the trio of hard drinking, chain-smoking koalas that appear within its first few pages to illustrate our…
What are the prospects of developing a COVID vaccine against all strains and future pandemics?
The arrival of the next pandemic is a matter of when, not if. In order to be prepared for it, we will need government-funded basic science in universities and the…
1 in 5 people have seasonal allergies — up from just 1% at the beginning of the 20th century. What’s the cause?
For around 20 per cent of us, nature’s annual awakening comes with side effects: Runny nose, sneezing, and itchy eyes. Some are so troubled by pollen allergies that they have…
Horses may have been domesticated twice. Only one attempt stuck
Horse power may have revved up about four millennia ago. Horses were domesticated at least twice, researchers report June 6 in Nature. Genetic data suggest Botai hunter-gatherers in Central Asia…
