Ewen Callaway
Maybe the Black Death did not reshape human evolution after all
An ancient-DNA study of medieval Cambridge found no sign of genes that helped people to survive the plague ...
Debate erupts over necessity of ‘risky’ viral research
When researchers at Boston University (BU) in Massachusetts inserted a gene from the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 into a strain ...
Bombshell study challenges conventional wisdom that brain scans can reveal behavior
In 2019, neuroscientist Scott Marek was asked to contribute a paper to a journal that focuses on child development. Previous ...
Evolution will determine how COVID changes after Omicron
How SARS-CoV-2 evolves over the next several months and years will determine what the end of this global crisis looks ...
For those who got COVID-19, immunity could last for the rest of your life
Many people who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 will probably make antibodies against the virus for most of their lives ...
Here’s why mixing and matching shots is likely superior than using just one brand
Vaccinating people with both the Oxford–AstraZeneca and Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines produces a potent immune response against the virus SARS-CoV-2, researchers ...
New COVID variants raise spectre of a global health catastrophe. Will they outpace vaccine development?
Scientists want to understand why SARS-CoV-2 variants identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa seem to be spreading so ...
Infographic: 8 ways we can defeat the coronavirus
More than 90 vaccines are being developed against SARS-CoV-2 by research teams in companies and universities across the world. Researchers ...
Genetic analysis unravels East Asia’s history, highlighting migration of early farmers
Ancient genomics is starting to unravel the history of East Asia. The first large-scale studies of ancient human genomes from ...
Speeding up coronavirus vaccine development by intentionally infecting the healthy? Volunteers are lining up
Momentum is building to speed the development of coronavirus vaccines by intentionally infecting healthy, young volunteers with the virus. A ...
Researchers retract study questioning long-term health of China’s controversial CRISPR babies
A study that raised questions over the future health of the world’s first gene-edited babies has been retracted because of ...
CRISPR creates ‘smart’ hydrogels that could lead to therapies capable of fighting multiple infections, diseases
Is there anything CRISPR can’t do? Scientists have wielded the gene-editing tool to make scores of genetically modified organisms, as ...
Who were the Denisovans? This Siberian cave could offer answers
Samantha Brown didn’t have high hopes when she opened the ziplock bag containing some 700 shards of bone. It would ...
UN rejects gene drive moratorium, but agrees to some limits
Nations rejected a proposal to temporarily ban the release of organisms carrying gene drives — a genetic-engineering technology designed to ...
DNA forensic analysis soon will be ‘vastly more powerful’—good for crime fighting, problematic for privacy
Genetic sleuthing techniques that led to the arrest of a suspect in the infamous Golden State Killer case this year ...
Archaeologist skeptics reject evidence humans settled Americas 130,000 years ago
When researchers made the astonishing suggestion last year that early humans settled the Americas 100,000 years earlier than thought, they asked doubters ...
Earliest human relative? Mystery and controversy surround 7-million-year-old femur
When anthropologists meet in France at the end of January, one of the most provocative fossils in the study of ...
Parkinson’s stem cell treatment shows promise in monkeys–human trials next
Japanese researchers report promising results from an experimental therapy for Parkinson’s disease that involves implanting neurons made from ‘reprogrammed’ stem ...
Doubts emerge about first ‘successfully cured’ CRISPR gene-edited human embryos
Doubts have surfaced about a landmark paper claiming that human embryos were cleared of a deadly mutation using genome editing ...
US national security advisors map plans to counter rogue gene drives
The JASONs, a group of elite scientists that advises the US government on national security, has weighed in on issues ranging from cyber security to renewing America’s nuclear arsenal ...
How evolution is dampening disease-fighting effectiveness of gene drives
[Gene drives] can quickly disseminate genetic modifications in wild populations through an organism’s offspring, prompting some activists to call for ...
Moratorium on gene drives rejected at UN biodiversity meeting despite protests from environmentalists
World governments at a United Nations biodiversity meeting [on December 2016] rejected calls for a global moratorium on gene drives, ...
Belgian lab tapping genetics of yeast to brew better beer
Kevin Verstrepen’s lab meetings can be pretty boozy affairs. Twice a week, several members of his group at Belgium’s University ...
Human genetic evidence suggests agriculture invented twice
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Two Middle Eastern populations ...
Hobbit’s ancestors found after more than a decade of searching
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. More than a decade ...
Can IVF save white rhino from extinction?
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. The northern white rhinoceros ...
Sweden, UK, China move forward with human embryonic gene editing amid ethical concerns
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. At the Karolinska Institute ...
How did scientists succeed in creating ‘minimal’ genome?
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Genomics entrepreneur Craig Venter ...