Menu Close

Articles on Genetics

Displaying 401 - 420 of 645 articles

The discovery of the genes that influence the beak shape in the famous Galapagos finches highlight the underlying unity of all life. Paul Krawczuk/Flickr

Darwin’s finches highlight the unity of all life

Darwin’s finches are known to be a paragon of evolution by natural selection, but a recent genetic discovery relating to their beaks highlights the evolutionary connectedness of all life.
Decreasing funding for fruit-fly research will hurt people, not flies. John Tann

Ode to the fruit fly: tiny lab subject crucial to basic research

These insects are so much more than just the scourge of fruit bowls everywhere. They’re a key model system for all kinds of research that teaches us about our own brain and body systems.
Map depicting the two major hypotheses of the spread of Indo-European languages (white arrows) and geographic distribution of the archaeological cultures described in the text. Wolfgang Haak

European invasion: DNA reveals the origins of modern Europeans

Europe is famously tesselated, with different cultural and language groups clustering in different regions. But how did they all get there? And how are they related?
The Human Genome Project was just the beginning. The Epigenome Roadmap is now telling us how all these genes switch on and off in different parts of the body, and how they go wrong with disease. Tom Purcell/Flickr

Beyond genetics: illuminating the epigenome

There’s still a lot we don’t know about how various genes are switched on and off. But a new project is seeking to shed light on the complex world of epigenetics.
Evolution isn’t necessarily progressive. Possan/Flickr

What blind beetles can teach us about evolution

Evolution is often perceived as being a “directional” or “adaptive” process. We often think of species evolving to become stronger or faster, or to have sharper teeth, for example. And we tend to see this…
The actions of cells underpin new thinking about pancreatic cancer, which took the life of Apple’s Steve Jobs. James Mitchell

How deadly cancer may actually be spread by survival mechanism

Pancreatic cancer is a devastating disease. With a ten-year survival rate of just 1%, it has the poorest prognosis of all solid tumours. The main reason for this is that tumours of the pancreas largely…
Mum’s gone to Iceland. Creatista/Shutterstock

Viking women travelled too, genetic study reveals

The traditional picture of Vikings is one of boatloads of hairy men pillaging their way along the coasts of Europe. Though true to some degree, this stereotype has more recently been tempered with the…

Top contributors

More