INVISIBLE NUMERALS

A medicine that disrupts the DNA replication of cancer cells may be within reach.

One geneticist is determined to piece together the causes.

Patterns that guide the development of feathers and other features can be set by mechanical forces in the embryo, not just by gradients of chemicals.

RNA and peptides coevolving in the primordial world might have jointly served as a precursor to the modern ribosome.

Breeding a variety that can withstand disease and taste better, too.

As arable land disappears, a genetic tweak might secure the world’s food supply.

DNA mutations are hard to fix. Scientists are trying another approach.

Genome sequencing machines are essential to preventing viral outbreaks, but funding is key.

DNA mutations are hard to fix. Scientists are trying another approach.

The phrase “Look down your nose” comes from a time when aristocrats were taller than commoners due to their superior nutrition. European elites would literally look down on their inferiors. So it shouldn’t be hard to imagine the shock 19th-century aristocrats experienced, across the Atlantic, encountering well-fed American laborers, artisans, and farmers, who would look […]

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

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.

Genetic diseases that puzzle lab scientists are being solved by quantitative biologists.

Unusual proteins that can quickly fold into different shapes provide cells with a novel regulatory mechanism.

Mistletoes have all but shut down the powerhouses of their cells. Scientists are still trying to understand the plants’ unorthodox survival strategy.