Dna | featured news

With the cost of genetic sequencing plunging, more people, especially parents, are using DNA testing to uncover genetic diseases in their offspring.

Horsemeat might not be bad for you to eat, but it's definitely bad for sales of products labeled as beef. But Ireland's surprise discovery of horsemeat traces in many factory-produced burgers is boosting business for one trade: Forensics labs able to use DNA fingerprinting to tell pig from fowl.

Scientists have given another eloquent demonstration of how DNA could be used to archive digital data. The UK team encoded a scholarly paper, a photo, Shakespeare's sonnets and a portion of Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream speech in artificially produced segments of the "life molecule".

Cambridge University scientists say they have seen four-stranded DNA at work in human cells for the first time and wonder if it might provide a target for the development of novel anti-cancer treatments.

Scientists have identified four regions of DNA that play a major role in controlling animal behavior: telling a mouse how long a burrow to dig and whether to add an escape tunnel.

Salmon that's genetically modified to grow twice as fast as normal could soon show up on your dinner plate. That is, if the company that makes the fish can stay afloat. After weathering concerns about everything from the safety of humans eating the salmon to their impact on the environment, Aquabounty was poised to become the world's first company to sell fish whose DNA has been altered to speed up growth.

That wonder molecule of life on Earth, DNA, is now being enlisted in the search for an exotic species zooming through the cosmos: dark matter... As far back as the 1930s, astronomers watching distant galaxies saw that something was missing: There were not enough stars to account for the heavy gravity needed to whirl galaxies so quickly or smash them together so swiftly.

Researchers in Texas say DNA evidence proves the existence of Big Foot.

Forensic tests show that George Zimmerman’s was the only DNA that could be identified on the grip of the gun used to fatally shoot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The results made public Wednesday rule out Martin’s DNA from being on the gun’s grip. Zimmerman’s DNA also was identified on the gun’s holster. The tests were inconclusive as to whether Martin’s DNA was on the gun’s holster.

Bananas are difficult to breed and are under attack from a host of diseases and other pests. The DNA data from a key species provide an important step in protecting the fruit. Breeding a stronger, better banana is not for the weak-willed.