Genes Tell Story of Birdsong and Human Speech
His office is filled with all sorts of bird books, but Duke neuroscientist Erich Jarvis didn’t become an expert on the avian family tree because of any particular interest in…
Genomes
Genome sequencing for newborns: What do new parents think?
A study published this week in Genetics in Medicine is the first to explore new parents’ attitudes toward newborn genomic testing. The findings suggest that if newborn genomic testing becomes…
Why Humans Don't Suffer From Chimpanzee Malaria: DNA Region Controlling Red Blood Cell Invasion Holds Genetic Key to Infection
By comparing the genomes of malaria parasites that affect chimpanzees and those that affect humans, researchers discovered that it is the difference in the parasites’ surface proteins that determine which…
Now Your Food Has Fake DNA In It
Like many novel technologies in this age of TED Talks and Silicon Valley triumphalism, synthetic biology—synbio for short—floats on a sea of hype. One of its founding scientists, Boston University…
Strongest Evidence Yet That Pygmies' Short Stature Is Genetic
It’s not another tall tale: Evolutionary biologists have developed a new understanding of the genetic basis of short stature in humans. Also known as the pygmy phenotype, a study published…
Spread of Genes Implicated in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Most people gradually recover from trauma, but a small fraction of individuals develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — prompting scientists to look for the biological underpinnings of this extreme response…