Genetics
- Genetics
Newfound DNA ‘enhancer’ behind many natural blonds
Some snippets of DNA other than genes play a role in giving some people of European a golden crown of hair.
- Microbes
A success for designer life
Synthetic biologists are scientists who create custom organisms in the lab. Their efforts have just taken a big step forward. They have created the first lab-made yeast chromosome. The advance could lead to entirely synthetic organisms customized to produce food, fuel or medicine.
- Genetics
Where Native Americans come from
All tribes seem to derive from the same Asian roots, DNA indicates.
- Genetics
Blue eyes in the Stone Age
Genes from an ancient skeleton suggest that dark-skinned people may have been the first to evolve blue eyes.
- Genetics
Ancient DNA sparks new mystery
DNA from a 400,000-year-old leg bone found in Spain is by far the oldest recovered from pre-human ancestors. It also shows an unexpected link to later, Asian ‘kin.’
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- Computing
Genetic memory
DNA is a chemical blueprint that effectively instructs cells on how to work.
- Health & Medicine
The rest of your DNA
Surprise: Scientists find most of human DNA molecule carries out important functions.
- Genetics
DNA hints at ancient cousins
Scientists find evidence of an extinct humanlike species within modern-day Africans.
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- Health & Medicine
Tomatoes’ tasteless green gene
The tomatoes your great-grandparents ate probably tasted little like the ones you eat today. The fruit used to have more flavor. A lot more flavor. In fact, tomatoes “were once so flavorful that you could take one in your hand and eat it straight away just like we regularly eat apples or peaches,” according to plant scientist Alan Bennett. He belongs to a team of international scientists who now think they know one reason why the fruit has lost so much flavor. Although some unripe tomatoes have a dark green patch near the stem, farmers prefer that their unripe tomatoes are the same shade of green all over. The consistent coloring makes it easier for them to know when the fruit should be picked.
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