Browsing: Genetics

Genetic engineering will bring us new Bolts and Shaqs.

Despite the hyperbole, private funding is changing the science of aging for the better.

Getting control of the molecular mechanisms that drive rapid mutations.

A new field called paleoepigenetics is probing how evolution responds to sudden stress.

Epigenetics and behaviorism suggest the ancient Greeks were right.

A report from a future where genetic engineering has sabotaged society.

The ratio of boys to girls at conception has been misunderstood for centuries.

The strange plumage of genetically mutated birds.

Headlines and apocalyptic notions about designer babies proliferated last month after Chinese scientists published the results of a curious set of experiments on human embryos. The researchers were looking to understand whether gene-editing technology could correct, before birth, a malformed gene that can cause a potentially devastating blood disease. They found that the method introduced new […]

“Add little to little and there will be a big pile.” —Ovid When we build complex technologies, despite our best efforts and our desire for clean logic, they often end up being far messier than we intend. They often end up kluges: inelegant solutions that work just well enough. And a reason they end up being […]