What Mormon Family Trees Tell Us About Cancer
By searching the church's famed family trees, scientists have tracked down a cancer-causing mutation that came west with a pioneer couple—just in time to save the lives of their great-great-great-great grandchildren.
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Francois Mori / AP Ancient DNA Is Rewriting Human (and Neanderthal) History
The genomes of the long dead are turning up all sorts of unexpected and controversial findings.
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David Goldman / AP The Ease of the Postal Service Makes It a Vector for Violence
A short history of how the mail has been exploited for terror
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Peter Nicholls / Reuters An Ex-Russian Spy Was Poisoned by a Nerve Agent—How Does It Work?
Nerve agents are deadly and usually colorless, and they share a long history with insecticides.
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23andMe 23andMe Will Now Test for BRCA Breast-Cancer Genes
It’s the first FDA-authorized genetic-cancer-risk test available without a doctor’s note.
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Yaniv Erlich / The Atlantic The 'Genome Hacker' Who Mapped a 13-Million-Person Family Tree
Huge crowdsourced genealogy databases are inspiring new genetics research.
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CDC Consider the Fruit Fly
Modern genetics would not be possible without the humble fruit fly.
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Dima Gavrysh / AP Life Can Survive in the Most Mars-Like Place on Earth
A rare rainstorm in the Atacama Desert offers a clue to how microbes persist in extreme conditions.
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Josiah Zayner A Biohacker Regrets Publicly Injecting Himself With CRISPR
“There’s no doubt in my mind that somebody is going to end up hurt eventually.”
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Joe Skipper / AP Why Can't the U.S. Treat Gun Violence as a Public-Health Problem?
A 1996 bill has had a chilling effect on the CDC’s ability to research firearms.
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Stephen Haffe / AFP / Getty Image When Herpes Infects the Eye
It’s a major cause of blindness, but scientists may have identified a surprising new way to treat it in mice.
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Ginkgo Bioworks Can This Company Convince You to Love GMOs?
Ginkgo Bioworks uses genetic engineering to make everything from fragrances to fertilizer—and it would like to reclaim the word “GMOs,” please.
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World War I Centenary / Lucy Adlington WWI’s Zeppelin Bombings Popularized the Trend of ‘Pyjamas’
It was a matter of practicality—but also of looking good.
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Ranja Andriantsoa A Pet Crayfish Can Clone Itself, and It's Spreading Around the World
“We’re being invaded by an army of clones.”
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Qiang Sun and Mu-Ming Poo / Chinese Academy ... Chinese Scientists Have Successfully Cloned Monkeys
Zhongzhong and Huahua are the first monkeys cloned by the same method that created Dolly the sheep.
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William Trumperant Potts / British Library The DNA of Iceland's First Known Black Man, Recreated From His Living Descendants
Hans Jonatan, who escaped slavery in 1802, now has hundreds of relatives in the country.
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Rafael Monleón y Torres / Wikimedia Commons A New Clue to the Mystery Disease That Once Killed Most of Mexico
The evidence comes from the 16th-century victims’ teeth.
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Gregory Bull / AP The Perfect Storm Behind This Year's Nasty Flu Season
A strong virus, a less-than-effective vaccine, and an IV bag shortage that goes back to Hurricane Maria.
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NIAID You May Already Be Immune to CRISPR
The human immune system can hinder the gene-editing tool, though there could be ways around it
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Rich Schultz / AP America's Rivers Are Getting Saltier
... which can cause big problems for aging pipes that carry drinking water.
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Jim Peaco / Yellowstone National Park A New Way to Find the Tree of Life's Missing Branches
Scientists have devised a method to sequence more microbes, more quickly, which could lead to a better understanding of the origin of complex life.
