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genomics

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A sad woman stands under an umbrella that is decorated with images of brains, molecules and DNA. Rain falls on her under the umbrella but the day is otherwise clear.
neuroscience

The Cause of Depression Is Probably Not What You Think

By Joanna Thompson
January 26, 2023
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Depression has often been blamed on low levels of serotonin in the brain. That answer is insufficient, but alternatives are coming into view and changing our understanding of the disease.

A snake and two frogs staring at one another across a rock.
genomics

How Genes Can Leap From Snakes to Frogs in Madagascar

By Veronique Greenwood
October 27, 2022
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The discovery of a hot spot for horizontal gene transfer draws attention to the possible roles of parasites and ecology in such changes.

Photo of man with gold-rimmed glasses and a pin-striped button-up shirt posing with his hand on an early hominid skeleton
Nobel Prize

Geneticist Awarded Nobel Prize for Studies of Extinct Human Ancestors

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
October 3, 2022
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Svante Pääbo has been awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for studying our extinct ancestors’ 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
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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.

An artist’s 3D illustration of chromosomes splitting and fusing together.
genomics

Secrets of Early Animal Evolution Revealed by Chromosome ‘Tectonics’

By Viviane Callier
February 2, 2022
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Large blocks of genes conserved through hundreds of millions of years of evolution hint at how the first animal chromosomes came to be.

2021 in Review

The Year in Biology

By John Rennie
December 21, 2021
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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.

A detailed photo of a fruit fly wing in silhouette.
developmental biology

Mathematical Analysis of Fruit Fly Wings Hints at Evolution’s Limits

By Elena Renken
September 20, 2021
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A painstaking study of wing morphology shows both the striking uniformity of individuals in a species and a subtle pattern of linked variations that evolution can exploit.

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
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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.

Micrograph of archaeal cells.
genomics

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

By Jordana Cepelewicz +1 authors
Allison Whitten
July 21, 2021
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Scientists have reported large DNA structures in some archaea that defy easy categorization.


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