The genetic breakthrough that could change humanity
A new genetic technology called CRISPR may enable scientists to make permanent changes in a person’s DNA. Here’s everything you need to know: What is CRISPR? It’s a revolutionary gene-editing […]
Organs for human transplant grown in sheep & pigs
Source: RT Organs which could be used for human transplants are being grown in farm animals for the first time in an attempt to solve the global shortage of donors […]
‘We Won’t Make Frankensteins,’ Cloning Giant Boyalife’s CEO Says
Source: NBC News By DAVID LOM and ERIC BACULINAO “WE REALLY DON’T WANT THE ENTIRE SOCIETY TO BECOME ONE BILLION EINSTEINS” BEIJING — The head of a Chinese firm that […]
Video: Solving the world’s drought problem
Could ‘resurrection plants’ be the future of food? Source: BBC When she was a child, Jill Farrant, a molecular physiologist based at the University of Cape Town, came across an […]
A Catholic dilemma: Should IVF embryos be adopted?
Source: Crux As more Americans than ever before turn to in vitro fertilization to create families, a surprising ethical question — what to do with thousands of embryos stuck in […]
Safer way to do gene editing
Source: BBC Scientists say they have fine tuned a gene editing method to make it safer and more accurate – vital if it is to be used in humans to […]
Why is the Nobel prize in chemistry given for things that are not chemistry?
Source: Economist THIS year’s Nobel prize in chemistry was awarded to three researchers who helped to discover how cells repair damaged DNA. It is unquestionably important work—without such repair mechanisms, […]
In ‘non-religious’ Japan, the shrine can still exert a pull
………… It’s a common refrain at Japan’s more than 80,000 shrines and temples. Yet evidence of an instinctive spirituality that infuses daily life can be spotted across the country, from […]
Real-life ‘Jurassic Park’? Siberian lab set to clone extinct mammals
Source: RT.com Real-life ‘Jurassic Park’? Siberian lab set to clone extinct mammals Russian scientists have begun their quest to clone pre-historic animals, including but not limited to a woolly mammoth, […]
Darwin not first to discover heterostyly in plants: study
Documents dating back to the 16th century show that naturalist Charles Darwin was not the first to discover the existence of heterostyly – floral forms that differ in male and […]
Easy DNA Editing Will Remake the World. Buckle Up.
Source: Wired.com Spiny grass and scraggly pines creep amid the arts-and-crafts buildings of the Asilomar Conference Grounds, 100 acres of dune where California’s Monterey Peninsula hammerheads into the Pacific. It’s […]
Jennifer Doudna, a Pioneer Who Helped Simplify Genome Editing
Source: NY Times BERKELEY, Calif. — As a child in Hilo, one of the less touristy parts of Hawaii, Jennifer A. Doudna felt out of place. She had blond hair […]
US ‘will not fund research for modifying embryo DNA’
Source: BBC By James Gallagher; Health editor, BBC News website Modifying the DNA of embryos is a “line that should not be crossed”, a leading figure in US research says. Dr […]
US 'will not fund research for modifying embryo DNA'
Source: BBC By James Gallagher; Health editor, BBC News website Modifying the DNA of embryos is a “line that should not be crossed”, a leading figure in US research says. Dr […]
Family income affects brain anatomy, test scores – MIT study
Kids in low-income households lag behind their peers from wealthier families when it comes to standardized testing. Their brain anatomy could be a factor, with the research exposing a “cost […]
Breastfed babies are smarter and earn more money – study
Posted 2 hours ago by Matthew Champion (@matthewchampion) in news Babies who are breastfed are more intelligent, stay longer in full-time education and ultimately earn more money as well, a three-decade study has concluded. Brazilian researchers interviewed 3,500 adults out of 6,000 babies who entered the study in 1982. They found that people […]
HIV vaccine that transforms cell DNA brings fresh hope
Source: BBC By James Gallagher, Health editor, BBC News website A radical new approach to vaccination seems to completely protect monkeys from HIV, US scientists report. Vaccines normally train the immune system to fight an infection. Instead, researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in California have altered the DNA of monkeys […]
What We Learn Before We’re Born: Ted Talk
Source: TED Talks Annie Murphy Paul, a science writer and reporter, has recently done research on fetal origins which is based on the theory that our health and our well-being is significantly affected in the rest of our lives by the 9 months in our mother’s womb. One of the […]
UK MPs say yes to three-person babies
Source:BBC MPs have voted in favour of the creation of babies with DNA from two women and one man, in an historic move. The UK is now set to become […]
James Watson selling Nobel prize ‘because no-one wants to admit I exist’
Source: The Telegraph By Keith Perry, Nov 2014 World-famous biologist James Watson said he is selling the Nobel Prize medal he won in 1962 for discovering the structure of DNA because […]