February 12, 2009
Biology has changed a lot over the past 150 years. Scientists have discovered entirely new forms of life, deciphered the molecular code of heredity and observed the machinery of life on the smallest dimensions. And through it all, one scientific theory has stood the test of time. New discoveries in [...]
September 24, 2008
What is it about humans that distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom? Is it our upright walking? Our language? Our love of Reality TV? Even though we are said to be 99% genetically identical to our closest evolutionary relative, the chimpanzee, we clearly differ vastly from them [...]
July 1, 2008
Last month I had the opportunity to go to the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution conference in the striking city of Barcelona. This is the premiere conference for geneticists studying evolution in everything from bacteria to fruit flies, weeds, worms and our favorite model organism, humans! This is a [...]
May 23, 2008
Just when you thought everything was starting to make sense – new genetic research on the peopling of the Americas throws us a curve. There has been plenty of research in both genetics and archaeology recently trying to figure out how the New World was colonized. Was it by boat or via the frozen [...]
April 14, 2008
DNA Day is being celebrated around the country on April 25, one week from Friday! To help you participate, we've compiled a list of DNA Day happenings. Drop us a line if you know of any we’ve missed. Chat Online with a Geneticist The National Human Genome Research Institute will host an online chat [...]
April 10, 2008
SNPwatch gives you the latest news about research linking various traits and conditions to individual genetic variations. These studies are exciting because they offer a glimpse into how genetics may affect our bodies and health; but in most cases, more work is needed before this research can provide [...]
March 4, 2008
Last Sunday's New York Times had an interesting story by Amy Harmon about people who choose not to undergo genetic diagnostic testing, or try to keep their results a secret, out of fear that they will lose their health coverage. But the letters in response to that story, published in this Sunday's paper, [...]
January 29, 2008
An editorial in the February issue of Nature Genetics makes a number of excellent points about the potential that personal genomics services such as 23andMe have to directly engage the public in research, not just as subjects but as collaborators. 23andMe was founded in part to harness the natural [...]
