Genetics & Molecular Biology

New research has found that some of the human X chromosome originates from Neanderthals and is found exclusively in people outside Africa. Neanderthals, whose ancestors left Africa somewhere in the…

I confess. I'm jealous of frogs, lizards and salamanders. Why? Because of their stem cells and transdifferentiation potential. Compared to them, us humans are pathetic in terms of our ability to…

I confess. I'm jealous of frogs, lizards and salamanders. Why? Because of their stem cells and transdifferentiation potential. Compared to them, us humans are pathetic in terms of our ability to…

Editing DNA holds great promise, but like all new technologies that are still in their infancy, it’s still slow, expensive and hard to use. However, researchers are developing genome-scale editing…

In a letter to Nature, Mark Ptashne, Oliver Hobert, and Eric Davidson question an editorial that appeared in the journal (Nature). The editorial, focused on the International Human Epigenome…

A Democratic president banned the use of federal money for human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research, a Republican president restricted federal hESC funding to existing lines and a Democratic…

The naked mole rat (or Heterocephalus glaber) (see figure 1) is a strange mammal. As their name already implies, they have little hair. Furthermore, their eyes are very small and their visual…

The image of a stoner always having the munchies is a stereotype because it's true - and it's true, say researchers, because it has a basis in biology. Daniele Piomelli, Nicholas DiPatrizio and…

Botany: A Blooming History And now we come to part three of this series 3. A Hidden World which is the world of the genes. However, this is a massive topic, and I’m going to split into two parts,…

Parental stress seems to influence the progeny of organisms. For example, studies have shown that, if mice are stressed, their offspring will show signs of anxiety, even if they receive the usual…