Genetics

  1. Health & Medicine

    Changes in kids’ genomes linked to chronic stress

    In a study of 40 nine-year-old boys, kids from underprivileged backgrounds had telomeres that were 19 percent shorter than those of boys from more privileged environments.

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  2. Genetics

    Feedback

    Readers ask about Neandertal genes and electricity-generating spores and react to a fusion milestone.

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  3. Genetics

    Bank voles provide clue to prion disease susceptibility

    A protein from bank voles makes mice susceptible to disorders that wouldn’t otherwise infect them.

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  4. Genetics

    Neandertal legacy written in Europeans’ fat metabolism

    DNA inherited from Neandertal interbreeding may have helped people adjust to Europe’s environment.

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  5. Genetics

    Gene editing reverses liver disorder in mice

    By editing a mouse's genes with bacterial proteins, scientists have reversed a rare liver disorder in the animal.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    This rare skull-thickening disease led to a 3-D-printed replacement

    A skull implant made with a 3-D printer replaced the 2-inch-thick skull of a Dutch woman with the rare van Buchem disease.

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  7. Animals

    Giant pandas like sweets, but prefer the natural ones

    Despite sustaining themselves on bamboo, which isn't very sweet, giant pandas will indulge in a bit of sugar, if they can.

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  8. Genetics

    Mice lose a gene to drop some weight

    Mice lacking gene have less fat, more muscle and lived longer than normal.

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  9. Genetics

    Early Polynesians didn’t go to Americas, chicken DNA hints

    Contamination of ancient chicken DNA may explain previous report linking Polynesians to South America.

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  10. Genetics

    Giant moa thrived before people reached New Zealand

    Humans probably caused the extinction of giant wingless birds called moa in New Zealand, DNA evidence suggests.

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  11. Life

    Protein linked to motor nerve cells being fast or slow

    The protein, Delta-like homolog 1, is made in 30 percent of motor neurons and helps to determine at which speed the cells work, research shows.

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  12. Genetics

    Neanderthal Man

    The hottest thing in human evolution studies right now is DNA extracted from hominid fossils. Svante Pääbo, the dean of ancient-gene research, explains in Neandertal Man how it all began when he bought a piece of calf liver at a supermarket in 1981.

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