Oct 21 Watch 8:17 This search engine could help unlock autism’s secrets By PBS News Hour Scientists have long known that genetics play a role in autism, but now they may be able to actually pinpoint the specific gene variants, which could help doctors diagnose and treat the neurodevelopmental disorder from birth. Special correspondent Jackie Judd… Continue watching
Aug 30 Looking for a way to store data for millennia? Try DNA. By Carey Reed, Andrew Mach The breakthrough could lead to the creation of digital archives, storing everything from ancient texts to Wikipedia pages in DNA form that could survive for hundreds of thousands of years without the loss of any data. Continue reading
Jun 18 Geneticists crack the 20-year mystery of the Kennewick Man skeleton By Nsikan Akpan Will U.S. Army Corps of Engineers return the Kennewick Man's remains now that they've been found to be closely related to Native Americans?… Continue reading
Apr 15 Are some people wired to fall for placebos? By Nsikan Akpan Some people are born believers. Fake surgeries have been shown to relieve traumatic knee pain; “dummy pills” have wiped away migraines. A new report from Harvard University describes how certain genes predispose people toward believing placebos, or experiencing… Continue reading
Feb 03 What’s in your supplement? By Simone Pathe For the first time, law enforcement is going after major retailers and drugstore chains selling herbal remedies that aren't all they're advertised to be. Continue reading
Oct 07 Scientists say DNA determines coffee consumption By Anna Christiansen Is Java in the genes? New research from The Coffee and Caffeine Genetics Consortium has brought us closer than ever in the quest to understand why coffee affects people differently. Continue reading
Sep 18 How did life on Earth begin? By Rebecca Jacobson, Inside Energy It's one of the biggest unanswered questions in science: How did life on Earth begin? Biochemists are breaking apart early Earth molecules to find out how RNA and DNA formed. Continue reading
May 07 As species decline, so do the scientists who name them By Jenny Marder Quentin Wheeler’s career can be traced back to a fascination with pond scum. Now president of SUNY’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Wheeler was 8 when he first peered through a microscope and saw the single-celled organisms known as… Continue reading
Apr 22 Watch Potential to revive extinct animals raises ethical questions By PBS News Hour Researchers are working to bring back extinct animals like the woolly mammoth and passenger pigeon, operating under the belief that reviving such species could restore vanishing habitats. But many biologists suggest these efforts should focus on endangered, rather than extinct,… Continue watching
Mar 14 Welcome to Pleistocene Park: Russian scientists say they have a ‘high chance’ of cloning a woolly mammoth By Zachary Treu Woolly mammoth blood and tissue discovered in Siberia in 2013 will give scientists “a high chance” to clone the prehistoric animal, a medical anthropologist told the English-language Siberian Times this week. Paleontologists discovered the carcass of a female… Continue reading