A new survey commissioned by 23andMe – the leading personal genetics company – in celebration of DNA Day reveals that the majority of Americans have an interest in learning more about themselves by exploring their DNA, even though many do not fully understand how their DNA functions. “A majority of Americans are interested in the knowledge that their genetic information…
An international team of scientists has used ancient DNA recovered from human remains dating from up to 5,500 BC to reconstruct the first detailed genetic history of modern Europe. “This is the first high-resolution genetic record of these lineages through time, and it is fascinating that we can directly observe both human DNA evolving in ‘real-time’, and the dramatic population…
Excerpt: If you’ve ever tried to decorate a room and have been frustrated because there weren’t pieces of furniture that were uniquely “you,” you might be in luck. Dutch design studio Tjep. will present its first exhibition of DNA furniture and jewelry, called “Future Nostalgia,” at Ventura Lambrate in Milan this month. That’s right — furniture shaped by DNA data. Frank Tjepkema, founder of Tjep. studio, is…
Michael Specter writes for the New Yorker and discusses the question: Can we patent life? Excerpt: The intellectual and commercial bounty from that research has already been enormous, and it increases nearly every day, as we learn ways in which specific genes are associated with diseases—or with mechanisms that can prevent them. It took thousands of scientists and technicians more…
A 20-year-old Chinese geneticist who has been dubbed the nation’s “Bill Gates” is three months away from releasing the results of a groundbreaking but controversial study to identify the genetics behind high IQ in humans. The Wall Street Journal reports on the fascinating career of Zhao Bowen, a child prodigy in charge of the cognitive genetics lab at BGI, a private company…
A new kind of testing is proving particularly helpful in diagnosing mysterious neurological illnesses in children. Scientists sequence all of a patient’s genes, systematically searching for disease-causing mutations. A few years ago, this sort of test was so difficult and expensive that it was generally only available to participants in research projects like those sponsored by the National Institutes of…