DNA

Over the years, archeologists have unearthed the remains of members of the infamous Franklin expedition, although it hasn't been possible to confirm their identities. Thanks to DNA analysis, however, scientists have now done so for the first time.

Tiny robots could serve useful functions, but shrinking actuators has proven challenging. Now researchers at the University of Wollongong have made artificial muscles that surpass your puny natural ones, inspired by the “supercoiling” of DNA strands.

Several hundred million people around the world have safely received a wildly effective COVID-19 vaccine based on mRNA technology. So what exactly is an mRNA vaccine, where did the technology come from, and what other diseases could it be useful for?

Two new studies have shed light on just how often our ancestors got frisky with Neanderthals. Scientists analyzed the genomes of 45,000-year-old human remains found in Czechia and Bulgaria, including the oldest known genome of a modern human.

Research has found night shift work can alter the expression of tumor-related genes making one more vulnerable to the DNA damage the leads to cancer, building on a growing understanding of the role circadian rhythms play in our DNA repair processes.

A team of researchers led by professor of pharmaceutical sciences John Chaputa at the University of California, Irvine, are developing methods for storing vast amounts of data on strands of synthetic DNA that are tougher than natural DNA.

A new study published in the journal Nature is describing the extraction and sequencing of the oldest known sample of DNA. The sample comes from an ancient species of mammoth found in the Siberian permafrost and dates back nearly 1.2 million years.

Scientists have sequenced the genome of a “living fossil” from the time our ancestors first crawled out of the oceans. The Australian lungfish genome is the largest of any animal sequenced so far, revealing it to be our closest living fish relative.

Like weeds that grow back if you don’t remove the roots, cancer can keep returning thanks to stem cells. A new “designer” DNA molecule eradicates these cancer stem cells, with tests in mice showing promising early results in preventing relapse.

A new piece of open source software can radically speed up the process of DNA sequencing, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers. Using a portable sequencer, the UNCALLED software can cut a 15-day operation down to three days, or even one.

Scientists have successfully extracted DNA from insects trapped in amber – but any creatures you might revive from this would hail from the not-so-distant past of 2014. The study aims to work backwards to find the limits of DNA preservation.

Engineers have developed a simple way to make colloidal diamonds that self-assemble. These structures have traditionally been tricky to manufacture in bulk, but with this new method they could be used to help make better photonic devices.