Genetics

Genetics

A man with short hair and a beard, wearing a light blue button-up shirt, sits indoors in front of a wooden wall.
21mins
"By keeping people biologically younger, we can enjoy a longer health span, a longer period of healthy life where we're active, where we're happy, where we can engage in our hobbies, and play with our grandkids and great grandkids."
An older man with a white beard sits on a chair against a white backdrop, with a large, colorful DNA double helix illustration in the background.
54mins
“How can all the diversity and, sort of, seeming order that's out there in the world emerge from a process dependent upon chance?”
A petri dish with a red agar medium shows various colonies of bacteria growing, with dense streaks on the right and scattered colonies on the left.
13mins
“Chance invents and natural selection propagates that chance invention.”
Illustration of a hand holding a pen, drawing a DNA double helix made of colored dots on a dark background.
It's time to write the human genome, argues microbiologist Andrew Hessel.
Two red-toned, woodcut-style portraits side by side: one of a gorilla and one of an older man with a beard, on a beige background.
7mins
“The idea of evolution by natural selection is, for me, probably the most beautiful idea in biology.”
A small, irregular brown stone with holes—possibly linked to Denisovans—is shown next to a 1990 U.S. dime for size comparison.
In “The Secret History of Denisovans,” Silvana Condemi and François Savatier trace the story of our mysterious hominin ancestor.
Diagram showing human evolutionary relationships and gene flow among Khoisan, West Africans, Non-Africans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans over time, with percentages of genetic admixture indicated.
After more than a million years of separation, two branches of humanity reunited around 300,000 years ago, suggests new research.
A sequence of six yellow-gold spheres illustrates stages of cell division against a black background.
43mins
"If we're related to every living thing on the planet, do we not have a special responsibility for every living thing on this planet? They are really all our relatives."
Collage of a snarling wolf, a stock market graph, and abstract shapes, overlaid with the bold text "The Night Crawler" hints at de-extinction possibilities.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
Gloved hands hold an open book titled "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection" by Charles Darwin, a seminal work exploring the origin of life, published in London by John Murray, 1859.
These books helped build the empirical case that life's origins differ from those described in myths and legends.
Two young children with curly hair in striped sweaters enjoy lollipops, showcasing the whimsical nature of genes and behavior. The black-and-white photo gives a nostalgic feel.
When it comes to behavior, genetics may play a larger role than you think.
A large group of people with red hair gather outdoors, many wearing white clothing.
Whether your hair is straight, wavy, curly, or kinky isn't just genetic in nature. It depends on the physics of your hair's very atoms.
A map depicting historical migration paths with two human figures positioned in different regions, illustrating ancient travel routes. The map shows various colored regions representing different terrains.
Early modern humans interbred with Neanderthals — and scientists recently pinpointed a key site of contact.
A red hourglass sits against a background of swirling purple patterns.
Kurzweil predicts that AI will combine with biotechnology to defeat degenerative diseases this decade. Then things will get really interesting.
Fluorescence microscopy image showing a close-up of cells in vibrant blue and green colors, with an arrow indicating a magnified section.
Cancers can’t develop without genetic mutations — or can they?
Two images of shark embryos against a black background, showing developmental stages with visible internal structures.
A study of spinal development took a strange turn and made a surprise discovery.
A tailless human from a rope.
CRISPR study helps answer a question that has long puzzled scientists.
Two identical twin men in boxing gear standing next to each other.
Is it genes or their special bond that drives identical twins to offend at similar rates?
A blue and white drawing of a person wrapped in a tape illustrating genetic determinism.
Genes are sometimes called the “blueprint of life,” but that doesn't make them the behavioral playbook.
A man standing next to a boat made of bananas at Uros.
The Uros of Lake Titicaca live on floating islands made from reeds. How did they get there?
A machine is moving down a conveyor belt in a warehouse.
Britain is profiling the genes, health and lifestyles of its citizens and handing the results to scientists across the world.
An image of an mri showing a brain.
Could subfertility be an under-explored factor in autism risk?
Fingers forming in the womb
The first-of-its-kind map, which goes all the way down to the level of a single cell, could help prevent common birth defects.
A close up of worms in a liquid.
These nematodes complicate how we understand evolutionary lineages.
A lepodisiran image of a human heart on a black background.
There is currently no easy way to treat high Lp(a). A single shot could change that.
Three young girls sitting on a bench and smiling.
After turning up hundreds of genes with hard-to-predict effects, some scientists are now probing the grander developmental processes that shape face geometry.
An aging man is rowing in a rowing boat, showcasing his strength despite potential muscle loss.
In December 2022, a company called BioAge Labs published findings on a drug that worked to prevent muscular atrophy, or the loss of muscle strength and mass, in older people.
A white rat with long hair standing on a black background.
A new study provides the first proof-of-principle that genetic material transferred from one species to another can increase both longevity and healthspan in the recipient animal.
A black and blue image of a chemical symbol featuring mirror image.
This biochemist is determined to create a new life form by reversing the shape of molecules.