One year after the first CRISPR babies were announced, changes in policies and regulations have meant that there have been no new CRISPR announcements since.
At a molecular level, stresses and strains can make your body clock break into a sprint.
Lightspring/Shutterstock
Emerging evidence suggests that prolonged stress exposure can accelerate the ticking rate of an internal cellular clock. By doing so, stress can contribute to faster ageing and body deterioration.
Through science, art and technology, we are able to reconstruct the faces of the dead based on their remains. The researcher who did this work for descendants in Sutherland explains the process.
A bear leaving its calling card.
Dean Harvey/Flickr
An animal’s poop may seem like something to avoid, but it’s full of information about the creature that left it there.
DNA database giant Ancestry lets members access international records including the convict and free settler lists, passenger lists, Australian and New Zealand electoral rolls and military records.
Patrick Alexander/Flickr
A US judge has allowed police access to the major DNA database without users’ consent (including Australian users). It’s a timely reminder that we urgently need genetic privacy legislation.
Sennedjem and Iineferti in the Fields of Iar, 1295–1213BC.
Charles K. Wilkinson/Met Museum of Art
Male lions are responsible for the movement of genes between prides. New research confirmed that the genes are traveling long distances – even though no one has been spotting the lions on the journey.
CRISPR technology could have momentous effects if it’s used to edit genes that will be inherited by future generations. Researchers and ethicists continue to weigh appropriate guidelines.
Forensic anthropologists, who analyse skeletal remains, can give us clues to how someone lived and died.
from www.shutterstock.com
While forensic scientists mostly use fingerprints, dental records and DNA to identify human remains, they have many other techniques in their forensic toolkit. How many have you heard of?
The idea of CRISPR as scissors ignores an entire ecosystem of moving parts that are crucial for understanding the awe-inspiring, crazy thing scientists are trying to do when they attempt gene editing.
New research investigated who uses the wide array of tools available to people who’ve received their own raw genetic data and want to maximize what they learn from it.
Decoding all the DNA in a patient’s biological sample can reveal whether an infectious microbe is causing the disease.
ktsdesign/Shutterstock.com
Charles Chiu, University of California, San Francisco
Superfast DNA analysis is now being used to crack medical mysteries when physicians can’t figure out whether an infectious microbe is causing the disease.