Genetics, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 30, 2008

Breakthrough: Artificial DNA Could Power Future Computers

Chemists claim to have created the world's first DNA molecule made almost entirely of artificial parts. The finding could lead to improvements in gene therapy, futuristic nano-sized computers, and other high-tech advances, the Japanese researchers say. DNA, popularly illustrated as a double helix, holds the blueprints of life and controls...

Apr 30, 2008

'Designer Baby' Work Criticized

NEW YORK (AP) — News that scientists have for the first time genetically altered a human embryo is drawing fire from some watchdog groups that say it's a step toward creating designer babies.'' But an author of the study says the work was focused on stem cells. He notes that...

Feb 29, 2008

Native American DNA Links to 6 'Founding Mothers'

NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly all of today's Native Americans in North, Central and South America can trace part of their ancestry to six women whose descendants immigrated around 20,000 years ago, a DNA study suggests. Those women left a particular DNA legacy that persists to today in about about...

Sep 30, 2009

Study: Bad Driving Is Genetic

Some people really are just bad drivers. That's according to new research suggesting individuals born with a certain variant of a gene don't stay on the road as well as their counterparts. If the results do in fact hold up, and this gene equals bad driving, 30 percent of Americans...

Apr 30, 2009

Genes Found Related to Onset of Menstruation and Menopause

Girls who begin menstruation earlier than average have a greater chance of being short and fat and are at greater risk for breast cancer and endometrial cancer later in life. Now scientists have found two genes involved in determining the onset of menstruation. The study also found genes related to...

Mar 31, 2009

Glowing Dogs Created in Lab

South Korean scientists claim to have put fluorescent genes into eggs to create four cloned dogs (all named Ruppy) that glow red under ultraviolet light. The same feat has been accomplished with mice, pigs and cats previously. Behind the effort: Showing that these genes can be implanted in eggs that...

Jan 31, 2009

New Artificial DNA Points to Alien Life

CHICAGO — A strange, new genetic code a lot like that found in all terrestrial life is sitting in a beaker full of oily water in a laboratory in Florida, a scientist said today, calling it the first example of an artificial chemical system that is capable of Darwinian evolution....

Nov 30, 2010

The Future of Flavor: Strawberry's Genetic Code Sequenced

Some 50 years ago, when consumers turned from local markets to grocery stores, the strawberry lost its burst of flavor. Now researchers say the newly sequenced genome of the woodland strawberry, a relative of the cultivated berry, may help bring back the fruit's tasty tang. Traditionally, strawberries have been bred...

Sep 30, 2011

Seeing Double: 8 Fascinating Facts About Twins

Science Times Two Twin girls sit in a park eating. (Image credit: Alexander Gitlits | Shutterstock)They are often difficult to tell apart and can use this fact to their advantage, tricking everyone from parents to teachers or dates. Besides pulling pranks, twins have a lot to tell us about human...

Aug 31, 2011

From Athlete to Couch Potato: What 2 Missing Genes May Mean

The difference between a couch potato and an Olympic athlete may be all in the genes. Researchers have discovered that disabling two genes in the muscles of mice severely limits their activity — specifically, their ability to run. The findings may help to explain why some people have trouble getting...

Jul 31, 2011

King Tut Related to Half of European Men? Maybe Not

A personal genomics company in Switzerland says they've reconstructed a DNA profile of King Tutankhamen by watching the Discovery Channel, claiming the results suggest more than half of Western European men are related to the boy king. But researchers who worked to decode Tut's genome in the first place say...

Jun 30, 2011

DNA Molecules Harnessed as Test Tube Computers

Supercomputers, robots and the human brain represent the artifacts of a long evolutionary chain stretching back to a soupy mass of molecules floating in Earth's oceans billions of years ago. Now researchers have gone back to the primordial ooze by creating a new type of artificial intelligence based on DNA...

Jan 31, 2011

How to Speak Genetics: A Glossary

Ever get confused about what's what when it comes to genetics? We've defined the main terms. Nucleotide Commonly called the building blocks of DNA, nucleotides consist of a nitrogen-containing chemical base either adenine, guanine, thymine or cytosine attached to a sugar and a phosphate group. One nucleotide's sugar group will...

Dec 31, 2010

Study: Genes Influence Who Your Friends Are

You may have more in common with your friends than a shared sense of humor or a penchant for the same bar. A new study finds that friends often resemble each other at the level of their genomes – though certain genes may influence people to bond with others who...

Nov 30, 2012

Genetic Test Could Better Reveal Fetal Abnormalities

A new test may be better at detecting potentially harmful genetic changes in children before they are born than current methods, researchers say. The test, called a chromosomal microarray, detected more irregularities that could result in genetic diseases — such as missing or repeated sections of genetic code — than...