Scientists have identified a microbe capable of interpreting a single piece of genetic code in two completely different ways, breaking a fundamental rule in molecular biology.

By combining Transformer-based sequence modeling with a novel conditional probability strategy, the approach overcomes long-standing trade-offs between maximizing expression metrics and maintaining ...

I hate to break this to you, but every child is a genetic experiment – and nature doesn’t care if things go wrong. Our genomes are awful messes created by conflicting evolutionary forces, and every ...

Researchers have discovered how cells activate a last-resort DNA repair system when severe damage strikes. When genetic tangles overwhelm normal repair pathways, cells flip on a fast but error-prone ...

How much of our genome really matters? Some argue that because most of our DNA is active, it must be doing something important. Others say even random DNA would be highly active. This has now been put ...

“Ultimately, we'll help the people we discriminate against if we try to understand more about them; genetics will lead to a world where there is a sympathy for the underdog.”—James D. Watson A recent ...

Most clinicians still underestimate the degree to which genetic factors shape personality traits and personality development. This is not controversial within behavioral genetics, but it remains ...

U.S. airports are entering a new era of heightened security screening, and for many international travelers, that means a lot more than just pulling out a passport. A new customs and border policy ...

Much of what shapes people’s lives happens at an unseen level—it comes down to DNA. This year, The Scientist explored genetic insights into how individuals smell, metabolize alcohol, and even how ...

When gene therapy was first proposed in the 1970s, the idea seemed straightforward but revolutionary: replacing defective genes with functional ones to cure a disease. But over the decades, this ...