Human skin is a garden of microbes which is home to about 1,000 bacterial species. Most are benign but some invade the skin and cause illness – and of these, antibiotic resistant bacteria are particularly…
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Articles on Genetics
Displaying 461 - 480 of 649 articles
There’s a huge variety in physical appearance in Latin America: there are indigenous native Americans, descendants of African slaves, Europeans and Middle Easterners of all kinds, and Chinese and Japanese…
How often is a person’s biological father someone other than the man they call dad? Paternity doubts are a source of gossip, on the one hand, and emotional trauma, on the other. But our assumptions about…
Bacterial diseases cause millions of deaths every year. Most of these bacteria were benign at some point in their evolutionary past, and we don’t always understand what turned them into disease-causing…
The number of endangered bird species is rising and even with our best intentions, there isn’t enough money to save them all – so how do we decide which species we should let go? A new approach has been…
Mistakes in the paper version of the Encyclopædia Britannica took a long time to correct – years often passed between revised editions – but these days editing information is much easier. In electronic…
Bottlenose dolphins who use sponges as tools experience changes to their genetic make-up as a result, research shows. Researchers…
Scientists have identified a gene that appears to control body fat in mice. Researchers engineered mice without the IRX3…
The theory that the Americas were populated by humans crossing from Siberia to Alaska across a land bridge was first proposed as far back as 1590, and has been generally accepted since the 1930s. But genetic…
A genetic predisposition to weight gain and obesity in later life can in part be explained by a lack of feeling full after eating, according to a new study in JAMA Paediatrics. Although there has been…
Why does a “gay gene” paper still cause a stir? A similar paper on any other topic would probably have passed unnoticed. But this is sex research – where public interest is huge but real funds and real…
The key to understanding disease is in our DNA – the human genome which contains the instructions on how our body should develop and grow. The key to progress in genomics research is in combining as much…
The reaction to the euthanasia of Marius the giraffe at Copenhagen Zoo has highlighted cultural differences in attitudes to animals and death between the UK and Denmark. I first visited the Copenhagen…
There is a common misconception that genes are deterministic and that human potential is fixed at birth. This could not be further from the truth. We, as behavioural geneticists, see no evidence whatsoever…
As the effects of climate change rapidly alter communities, economies and natural systems, the need to advance new solutions to what may be the most pressing biological challenge of our time has never…
An international team of researchers has found that the cause of schizophrenia is even more complex than already believed, with rare gene mutations contributing to the disorder. In two studies published…
Schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder and autism have all had recent attention for being “genetically caused”. In scientific research being genetically caused usually corresponds to having a high…
New research claims genetics play an important role in the exam results of British teenagers, even more important than their home life or their teachers. The research, conducted by academics in the United…
Air pollutants may increase the risk of autism in people who have a genetic disposition to the condition. US researchers…
Every now and again you might read about gene therapy and efforts to correct serious genetic diseases. But I’m betting that very few readers have had gene therapy, nor have they ever met anyone who has…
Top contributors
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Jenny Graves is a Friend of The Conversation.Distinguished Professor of Genetics and Vice Chancellor's Fellow, La Trobe University
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Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic Quality and Professor of Molecular Biology, UNSW Sydney
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Postdoctoral researcher in genetics, University of Leicester
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Professor of Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London
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Professor in Medical Sciences, Deakin University
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Head, Molecular Medicine Laboratory, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
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Professor of Biogerontology, University of Brighton
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Matthew Flinders Professor of Biodiversity Genomics, Flinders University
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Emeritus Robert Reford Professor and Professor of Medicine, McGill University
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Director of Bruce Lefroy Centre for Genetic Health Research, Murdoch Children's Research Institute
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Adjunct Professor, Murdoch University
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Visiting Professor in Biomedical Ethics, Murdoch Children's Research Institute; Distinguished Visiting Professor in Law, University of Melbourne; Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, University of Oxford
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Emeritus Professor of Animal Genetics, University of Sydney
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Assistant Professor in Biomedical Ethics, National University of Singapore
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Thomas Merritt is a Friend of The Conversation.
Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Laurentian University
