News
Canadian man becomes first human cured with prime gene editing
8+ hour, 12+ min ago (836+ words) Ty Sperle, a 19-year-old from Kelowna, British Columbia, has become the first person cured of a rare inherited immune disorder after doctors used prime gene editing to correct a single DNA error in his own blood-forming cells. His recovery shows…...
Life may have learned to use oxygen long before it filled Earth’s air
3+ week, 2+ day ago (1001+ words) Oxygen feels like the most ordinary thing in the world now. We breathe it, plants make it, and most animals depend on it." But for most of Earth's history, oxygen wasn't a stable part of the atmosphere at all. Scientists…...
Burn injuries may be part of human evolution
3+ week, 4+ day ago (1011+ words) Burns have been part of human life for as long as we have lived with fire. Fire cooks our food, warms our homes, and powers much of the modern world. It has done so for more than a million years....
Bird eyes have capabilities that should not be possible
1+ mon, 2+ week ago (729+ words) Bird eyes have puzzled scientists for centuries. One part of the mystery comes from a simple question. How can bird retinas stay alive without oxygen? A new study published in the journal Nature finally explains this strange ability. The research…...
Ancient microbes left wrinkles in deep seafloor rocks
1+ mon, 2+ week ago (815+ words) Far below where sunlight can reach, subtle marks in Moroccan stone suggest that life left a record in a place long assumed to be erased by time." The finding matters because it challenges where scientists think fragile traces of early…...
Scientists warn of a new biological risk and call for an international summit
1+ mon, 3+ week ago (838+ words) Thirty-eight researchers from around the world are urging caution over mirror life " a hypothetical form of biology built from mirror-image molecules that could behave unpredictably in natural systems. In response, a major biomedical research institute in Paris is convening an…...
Gene-edited fungus could transform sustainable protein production
3+ mon, 1+ week ago (882+ words) Scientists have engineered a fungus that turns the same amount of feedstock into significantly more edible protein " and does so with far fewer emissions. In new research from Jiangnan University in Wuxi, China, a gene-edited strain of Fusarium venenatum produced…...
Scientists recover the world's oldest RNA in a well-preserved woolly mammoth
3+ mon, 2+ week ago (755+ words) For years, the story of the woolly mammoth has felt fixed in the past. Ancient bones, frozen tissue, and fragments of DNA help scientists stitch together how these giants lived and died. A new study pushes that story even farther....
Which animal really came first? The debate may finally be settled
3+ mon, 2+ week ago (881+ words) A question has stirred up arguments in biology for years: which creature sits at the very base of the animal family tree? The choice seems simple. It is either the sponge, which has no muscles and no neurons, or the…...
How scientists are turning invasive crazy ants against themselves
3+ mon, 3+ week ago (954+ words) Tawny crazy ants have been causing major problems in the southern U.S. for years. From Florida to Texas, these invasive pests have overrun yards, homes, and ecosystems. The ants aren't just annoying " they push out native species and throw entire environments…...