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DNA

Illustration of a wooly mammoth with its hind quarters still being assembled from digital blocks.
explainers

Why ‘De-Extinction’ Is Impossible (But Could Work Anyway)

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
May 9, 2022
Read Later

Several projects are aiming to bring back mammoths and other species that have vanished from the planet. Whether that’s technically possible is beside the point.

Illustration of a network of self-replicating RNA molecules evolving and getting more complex.
origins of life

In Test Tubes, RNA Molecules Evolve Into a Tiny Ecosystem

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
May 5, 2022
Read Later

When researchers gave a genetic molecule the ability to replicate, it evolved over time into a complex network of “hosts” and “parasites” that both competed and cooperated to survive.

Illustration that combines elements of three- and four-leaf clovers with the letter for nucleotides in codons.
synthetic biology

Life With Longer Genetic Codes Seems Possible — but Less Likely

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
April 11, 2022
Read Later

Life could use a more expansive genetic code in theory, but new work shows that improving on three-letter codons would be a challenge.

2021 in Review

The Year in Biology

By John Rennie
December 21, 2021
Read Later

The detailed understanding of brains and multicellular bodies reached new heights this year, while the genomes of the COVID-19 virus and various organisms yielded more surprises.

Photo of Karen Miga of the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a representation of chromosomes in the background.
Q&A

Karen Miga Fills In the Missing Pieces of Our Genome

By Carrie Arnold
September 8, 2021
Read Later

Driven by her fascination with highly repetitive, hard-to-read parts of our DNA, Karen Miga led a coalition of researchers to finish sequencing the human genome after almost two decades.

Illustration of DNA that represents how only a small part of the genome encodes proteins.
explainers

The Complex Truth About ‘Junk DNA’

By Jake Buehler
September 1, 2021
Read Later

Genomes hold immense quantities of noncoding DNA. Some of it is essential for life, some seems useless, and some has its own agenda.

Artist’s conception of DNA breaking.
neuroscience

To Learn More Quickly, Brain Cells Break Their DNA

By Jordana Cepelewicz
August 30, 2021
Read Later

New work shows that neurons and other brain cells use DNA double-strand breaks, often associated with cancer, neurodegeneration and aging, to quickly express genes related to learning and memory.

Micrograph of archaeal cells.
genomics

Plasmid, Virus or Other? DNA ‘Borgs’ Blur Boundaries.

By Jordana Cepelewicz +1 authors
Allison Whitten
July 21, 2021
Read Later

Scientists have reported large DNA structures in some archaea that defy easy categorization.

Electron microscopy of T4 bacteriophages.
molecular biology

DNA Has Four Bases. Some Viruses Swap in a Fifth.

By Jordana Cepelewicz
July 12, 2021
Read Later

The DNA of some viruses doesn’t use the same four nucleotide bases found in all other life. New work shows how this exception is possible and hints that it could be more common than we think.


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