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ScienceHuman HistoryAnalysis of Ancient DNA Suggests Finnish and Estonian Languages Came From Siberia
Northern Europeans who speak Uralic languages, such as Estonian and Finnish, can thank ancient migrating Siberian populations for their dialects, according to a fascinating new study that combined genetics, archaeology, and linguistics. The majority of Europeans can trace their origins back to several ancestral populations, namely indigenous European hunter-gathers, early farmers from Anatolia (now Turkey), … Continued
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Tech NewsEvidence of Arsenic-Breathing Microbial Life Found in Pacific Ocean
Researchers working off the coast of Mexico have discovered evidence of arsenic-breathing life in oxygen-starved waters. These resilient microbes are a vestige of Earth’s ancient past, but they could also be a sign of things to come under the influence of climate change. Billions of years ago, when the Earth was still very young, the … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityHomeland Security to Start DNA Testing Asylum Seekers as It Tries to Back Up ‘Fake Families’ Scare Tactic
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will start using Rapid DNA tests on some asylum seekers at the U.S.–Mexico border next week, according to a new report from CNN. The tests are intended to determine whether adults and children who are traveling together are actually family members. The Rapid DNA tests involve a cheek swab … Continued
By Matt Novak -
ScienceBiologyScientists Could Soon Resurrect the Woolly Mammoth—but Should They?
Bringing an extinct species back to life was once firmly in the realm of science fiction, but as genetic engineering advances rapidly, the prospect of a woolly mammoth again breathing and walking on Earth seems almost within reach. Before fully resurrecting the mammoth, synthetic biologists at the Revive and Restore project are working to resuscitate … Continued
Erin Biba -
Tech NewsGimlet’s Union Drive, Twisted Graphene, and Psychedelic Mice: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
Well, folks, it’s just a few hours shy of the turn of the month, and you know what that means: April Fool’s Day. Yes, it’s that special time of year when insipid brands, mean-spirited teens, and tech titans compete to be the first to trick you into thinking they released Skittle’s… For Men, that it’s … Continued
By Tom McKay -
ScienceBiology
FDA Lifts Import Ban on Genetically Modified Salmon That Reach Market Twice as Fast
The Food and Drug Administration announced on Friday that it is lifting an import ban that prevented a brand of genetically modified salmon—dubbed “Frankenfish” by some—from reaching U.S. shopping selves, CNN reported. The FDA originally cleared AquaAdvantage salmon, which is genetically engineered to grow year-round and thus reach the market twice as fast as unmodified … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech News
Robocall Hell, Divination Bot Returns, and a Fake MD: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
The winds of time blow strangely here, in our unfortunate state of internet-enabled perpetual present, but how the heck is it already March? This is not a rhetorical question. If you could explain this to me, that would be great. Yet in keeping pace with the relentless march of seconds turning into minutes turning into … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsFake FCC Comments, Shark DNA, and the Edge of Everything: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
Hopefully your week has been better than leading New York politicians, like NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew “Amazon” Cuomo—both of whom are still dealing with the disastrous fallout from the failed deal to subsidize a new Amazon facility in Queens’s Long Island City neighborhood. (Adding insult to injury: de Blasio, who has … Continued
By Tom McKay -
ScienceBiology
Newly Decoded Great White Shark Genome Hints at Why They’re So Indestructible
The great white shark is impressively terrifying (though not actually much of a threat to humans). But a new study shows that the animal is also an impressive feat of evolution. For the first time, scientists say they’ve fully unspooled the genome of the great white, a discovery that will help us better understand why sharks … Continued
By Ed Cara -
ScienceBiology
Gene Therapy for the Most Common Form of Blindness Gets Its First Human Test
An 80-year-old woman from the United Kingdom is the first patient to undergo gene therapy to treat age-related macular degeneration—the most common cause of sight loss in the world. It’s too early to tell if the procedure worked, reports the BBC, but for the millions of people around the world at risk of developing age-related … Continued
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ScienceHuman History
AI Finds Traces of a Lost Species in Human DNA
Buried deep within the DNA of Asian individuals is a genetic clue pointing to the existence of an unknown human ancestor. Remarkably, it wasn’t a human who reached this startling conjecture, but rather an artificially intelligent algorithm. Welcome to archaeology in the 21st century. New research published last week in Nature Communications suggests a yet-to-be … Continued
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ScienceBiologyChina’s Latest Cloned-Monkey Experiment Is an Ethical Mess
Chinese researchers have cloned five gene-edited monkeys with a host of genetic disease symptoms, according to two scientific papers published today. The researchers say they want to use the gene-edited macaques for biomedical research; basically, they hope that engineering sick primates will reduce the total number of macaques used in research around the world. But … Continued
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ScienceBiology
Biology Lab Strips James Watson of All Honorary Titles After ‘Reprehensible’ Race Remarks
The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has stripped James Watson, the 90-year-old Nobel Prize-winning scientist famous for determining the double-helix structure of DNA with his partner Francis Crick in the 1950s based on research conducted by British chemist Rosalind Franklin, of all his honorary titles after the laboratory deemed his recent remarks on race “reprehensible,” … Continued
By Tom McKay -
ScienceA Lifelong Biodome Experiment Could Reveal How the Immune System Shapes Personality
It’s the sort of realization that ought to make you existentially terrified: All of your thoughts and actions are influenced by countless interconnected factors, most of which you are never conscious of. Geneticist and immunologist Joshua Milner, a senior researcher at the National Institutes of Health, and other scientists have their own radical theory about … Continued
By Ed Cara -
ScienceBiology
A Bulldog’s Screw Tail Might Help Us Understand a Rare Genetic Disease in People
One of the most distinctive body parts of your typical English bulldog, French bulldog, or Boston terrier—their coiled screw tail—might be caused by a specific genetic mutation, suggests recent research. And more importantly for us humans, that same genetic quirk might help scientists better understand a rare disorder in people. Bulldogs and terriers are some … Continued
By Ed Cara -
EartherConservation
Eastern Lowland Gorillas Heading Towards ‘Genetic Meltdown’
Eastern lowland gorillas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have endured dramatic population declines in recent decades, leading to a startling lack of genetic diversity and a slew of harmful mutations, according to new research. By comparing the genomes of living eastern lowland gorillas, also known as Grauer’s gorillas, with genomes derived from museum … Continued
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ReviewsDon’t Take the DNA Test You’ll Probably Get for Christmas
This year, you and your loved ones may have come across ads for a great gift to give this holiday season: cheaper-than-ever home DNA-testing kits sold by companies like 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA, and Ancestry. And judging by the numbers, these companies’ sales pitches have been a wild success for them, especially in 2018. Just a few … Continued
By Ed Cara -
ScienceHealth
Chinese Government Says It Has Shut Down Controversial Human Gene-Editing Project
A project claiming to have produced the world’s first gene-edited babies has been stopped by the Chinese government, which is declaring the work of scientist He Jiankui as being both unlawful and unethical, according to the Associated Press. The world learned of He’s experiment earlier this week, though we’re still waiting to see outside scientific … Continued
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ScienceBiology
Rogue Scientist Defends Gene-Edited Babies—and Reveals a Second Pregnancy
Speaking at a genetics conference in Hong Kong earlier today, embattled Chinese scientist He Jiankui said he was “proud” to have created the world’s first genetically edited babies, despite receiving near-universal condemnation from his peers. Speaking publicly today for the first time, the scientist offered new details about his unauthorized, clandestine project—including news of another … Continued
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Tech News
Bizarre Microbes Represent a Major New Branch on the Evolutionary Family Tree
Canadian scientists have identified microscopic creatures that are so unlike anything seen before, they had to create an entirely new branch on the evolutionary tree of life to slot them in. A new paper published this week in Nature offers the first genetic analysis of hemimastigotes—a rare and poorly understood group of single-celled microorganisms. Biologists … Continued