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Why Statistically Significant Studies Aren’t Necessarily Significant
Scientific results often defy common sense. Sometimes this is because science deals with phenomena that occur on scales we don’t experience directly, like evolution over billions of years or molecules...
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Should Researchers Warn Their Subjects About Genetic Danger?
If you were aware that someone was in grave danger but didn’t know it, would you warn them? Most of us would. These days, medical researchers are often confronted with people who may be in danger:...
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We Now Can Edit Our Genes, but Should We?
Early in the 20th century, medical researchers began to realize that some diseases are caused by broken genes. In 1909, British physician Archibald Garrod reported that certain “inborn errors of...
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Elizabeth Taylor, My Great-Grandpa, and the Future of Antibiotics
In March of 1961, Elizabeth Taylor was in London filming her next blockbuster, Cleopatra, when she fell ill with pneumonia. She underwent an emergency tracheotomy, and for days the press followed every...
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Genes Affect Our Behavior, but So Does the Environment
Researchers at Stanford University recently reported that they discovered a genetic basis for blondes. At first glance, this result could be a poster child for how we typically think genetics works:...
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Is Social Media Saving Science?
Last week, two big papers that described a seemingly revolutionary method to make stem cells were retracted. The retractions were no surprise to stem cell researchers. Authored by a team of Japanese...
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The Consequences of Curing Childhood Cancer
This story starts with good news: Children who get cancer are increasingly likely to survive. Roughly 16,000 U.S. children will be diagnosed with cancer in 2014, according to American Cancer Society...
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How and Why Does the Social Become Biological?
Every Friday this month we’ll be taking a look at the relationship between the social and the biological—specifically, how and why the former becomes the latter. Check back each week for a new...
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How Tiny Genetic Changes Have Massive Behavioral Effects
Every Friday this month we’ll be taking a look at the relationship between the social and the biological—specifically, how and why the former becomes the latter. Check back next week for a new...
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How the Sexes Evolved
Every Friday this month we’re taking a look at the relationship between the social and the biological—specifically, how and why the former becomes the latter. Check back next week for another...
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Why ‘Nature Versus Nurture’ Often Doesn’t Matter
Every Friday this month we’re taking a look at the relationship between the social and the biological—specifically, how and why the former becomes the latter. Check back next week for the final...
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Why Our Molecular Make-Up Can’t Explain Who We Are
Every Friday this month we’ve taken a look at the relationship between the social and the biological—specifically, how and why the former becomes the latter. This is the the final installment. Can the...
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Why Vaccines Still Matter
“Vaccination is the most effective medical intervention ever introduced and, together with clean water and sanitation, it has eliminated a large part of the infectious diseases that once killed...
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How Ancient DNA Is Rewriting Human History
There are no written records of the most important developments in our history: the transition from hunting and gathering to farming, the initial colonization of regions outside Africa, and, most...
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Sonic Hedgehog, DICER, and the Problem With Naming Genes
Scientists are supposed to be systematic thinkers. But the names assigned to human genes don’t follow any system; they are an odd jumble of cryptic abbreviations, forced acronyms, and weird neologisms....
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The Giant Mutations in the Human Genome
Intellectual disability and developmental delay disorders are surprisingly common, but they’re frustratingly mysterious and hard to categorize. Patients often show a baffling mix of symptoms that are...
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Why DNA Is One of Humanity’s Greatest Inventions
Humans and their ancestors have been using tools for millions of years. We owe our prolific capacity for making tools to our DNA, and now we’ve reached the point were we’ve made DNA itself into a tool....
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To Read Our DNA, We Need to Crack Another Genetic Code
There are thousands of mutations that occur in the breast cancer-linked genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. Some of these cause breast or ovarian cancer, while others are harmless. When we design a genetic test for...
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Why Both Genetics and Lifestyle Matter in the Obesity Epidemic
We’ve all heard the caveats about the role of our genes in our lives: Genes aren’t destiny, nor are nature and nurture mutually exclusive. Humans may not be blank slates, but we’re not DNA robots...
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