DNA helicopters offer insight into how biological machines power living things
For decades, researchers have chased ways to study how biological machines power living things. Every mechanical movement — from contracting a muscle to replicating DNA...
Scientists prove insects also feel chronic pain for the first time
Scientists have known insects experience something like pain since 2003, but new study proves for the first time that insects also experience chronic pain...
Metabolomes: A new way to store data in little space
New research shows it’s possible to store image files in solutions of common biological small molecules. The work is toward molecular storage systems that could...
DNA test helps solve 25-year-old shark bite mystery
When Jeff Weakley tweezed open a blister-like bulge on his foot, he was not expecting to find a piece of tooth from a shark...
Why humans are so much fatter than chimps, despite sharing 99% of same DNA
The answer may have to do with an ancient shift in how DNA is packaged inside fat cells.
Blame junk food or a lack of...
New gene editor could fix major shortcoming of current CRISPR tech
Scientists at Columbia have developed a gene-editing tool—using jumping genes—that inserts any DNA sequence into the genome without cutting, fixing a major shortcoming of...
Scientists recreate cell division outside a cell for the first time
Every living thing moves—prey from predators, ants to crumbs, leaves toward sunlight. But at the most fundamental level, scientists are still struggling to grasp the...
Godzilla is back and he’s bigger than ever
Godzilla first made his debut in 1954. At inception, he was a 50-meter tall metaphor for indiscriminate destruction, particularly U.S. hydrogen-bomb testing in the Marshall...
Why is carbon the key to life? On earth, anyway
One element is the backbone of all forms of life we've ever discovered on Earth: carbon. Number six on the periodic table is, to the...
Scientists find a new food source for early life on Earth
Scientists have demonstrated a new source of food for early life on the planet. Life on Earth relies on the availability of critical elements such...