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Thousands of years ago, a special child was born in the Sahara. At the time, this was not a desert; it was a green belt of savannas, woodlands, lakes and rivers. Bands of hunter-gatherers thrived there, catching fish and spearing hippos. A genetic mutation had altered the child’s hemoglobin, the molecule in red blood cells that ferries oxygen through the body. It was not harmful; there are two copies of every gene, and the child’s other hemoglobin gene was normal. The child survived, had a family and passed down the mutation to future generations. As the greenery turned to desert,...

Ancient DNA recovered from a series of skeletons in central Germany up to 7500 years old has been used to reconstruct the first detailed genetic history of modern Europe. The study, published today in Nature Communications, reveals a dramatic series of events including major migrations from both Western Europe and Eurasia, and signs of an unexplained genetic turnover about 4000-5000 years ago. The research was performed at the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD). Researchers used DNA extracted from bone and teeth samples from prehistoric human skeletons to sequence a group of maternal genetic lineages that are...

"None of the dynamic changes we observed could have been inferred from modern-day genetic data alone, highlighting the potential power of combining ancient DNA studies with archaeology to reconstruct human evolutionary history."

Humans may be evolving an 'ultimate hangover' gene to protect against alcoholism. That's according to a new study that looked at a variant of a gene that makes booze intolerable to the body. Scientists claim this gene variant is being favoured by evolution - and, in time, could stop us from drinking alcohol in the future.

The first modern Britons, who lived about 10,000 years ago, had “dark to black” skin, a groundbreaking DNA analysis of Britain’s oldest complete skeleton has revealed. The fossil, known as Cheddar Man, was unearthed more than a century ago in Gough’s Cave in Somerset. Intense speculation has built up around Cheddar Man’s origins and appearance because he lived shortly after the first settlers crossed from continental Europe to Britain at the end of the last ice age. People of white British ancestry alive today are descendants of this population. It was initially assumed that Cheddar Man had pale skin and...

Josiah Zayner, 36, recently made headlines by becoming the first person to use the revolutionary gene-editing tool Crispr to try to change their own genes. Part way through a talk on genetic engineering, Zayner pulled out a syringe apparently containing DNA and other chemicals designed to trigger a genetic change in his cells associated with dramatically increased muscle mass. He injected the DIY gene therapy into his left arm, live-streaming the procedure on the internet. The former Nasa biochemist, based in California, has become a leading figure in the growing “biohacker” movement, which involves loose collectives of scientists, engineers, artists,...

Who were your ancestors? What is your ethnic background composed of? Sites like Ancestry.com and 23andme have always been some go to sources in answering all of your toughest questions. But how accurate are they? In a recent interview with Cracked, one of the major ancestry testing companies, (which specific company is unknown) spilled the beans on what really happens when you purchase an ancestry kit. While I can’t say I’m surprised, you may be shocked to learn that these ancestry sites aren’t always as accurate as they claim to be. Beyond this, they’ve also admitted to tampering with the...

With a vial of saliva and a little cutting-edge science, AncestryDNA can tell you if you’ve got any Irish heritage in your genes. And with a lot of cutting-edge science, researchers in December 2015 published a study telling the world where that Irish heritage first originated. By studying the 5,000-year-old remains of a female farmer buried near Belfast, Ireland, and the remains of three men buried 3,000 and 4,000 years ago on Rathlin Island in County Antrim, archaeologists and geneticists now say they now know where the modern Irish people originally came from. The remains of the Stone Age female...

'Since the Torah is the basic fabric of reality it cannot be hidden forever'! Scientists are coming closer and closer to the Bible, as more evidence arises of its accuracy, according to a report in Breaking Israel News. Science now supports the biblical account of the first man and woman in that it recognizes “Mitrochondrial Eve” and “Y-Chromosomal Adams,” the report said. BIN reports end times expert Rabbi Pinchas Winston describes the developing scientific view as “signal of redemption.” “During the exile there was great Hester Panim – a hiding of God’s face,” he told BIN. “As a result the...

We are all unique. Yes, even you. Your mom was right!And you’re here because questions about your body type and genetics:What body type am I?How does it affect my training and diet?I have bad genetics, how screwed am I?I am a [body type]. Does that mean I shouldn’t do [activity]?We all have different bodies, genetics,reactions from certain foods, strengths, and weaknesses, and thus we each have different activities and behaviors that we’re predisposed to be good at (or struggle with!).The standard way of thinking tells us that we have three main “body types”: EndomorphEctomorphMesomorph (Don’t worry we’ll get into each...

A genomic analysis of ancient human remains from KwaZulu-Natal revealed that southern Africa has an important role to play in writing the history of humankind. A research team from Uppsala University, Sweden, the Universities of Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand, South Africa, presents their results in the September 28th early online issue of Science. The team sequenced the genomes of seven individuals who lived in southern Africa 2300-300 years ago. The three oldest individuals dating to 2300-1800 years ago were genetically related to the descendants of the southern Khoe-San groups, and the four younger individuals who lived 500-300 years ago were...

New research shows that all blue-eyed people share a common ancestor. This person lived more than 6,000 years ago and carried a genetic mutation that has now spread across the world. The exact cause remains to be determined but scientists do know that eye color began to change long before recorded history began. The following is a transcript of the video. All blue-eyed people have one ancestor in common, born around 6,000-10,000 years ago. Blue eyes are caused by a gene mutation. For years, researchers had searched for it on the OCA2 gene. The OCA2 gene determines how much brown...

A study has revealed people's like or dislike for Vegemite is in their DNA. Whether people love or hate the yeast-based spread is reportedly down to their parents, according to a new study by DNAFit - one of the UK's top genetic research centres - who have discovered your genes determine whether or not you enjoy the opinion-dividing snack. DNAFit asked 260 adults to taste a 2g serving of Marmite, the British equivalent of Vegemite, before filling out a questionnaire noting their reaction to it, and after analysing the DNA of each participant, researchers discovered the make up of 15...

A special thanks to Dr. Neil Lamb at the Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology. A major mission of Hudson Alpha is to educate the public and promote genomics literacy. I talked to many scientists about Genotyping but Dr. Lamb's ability to break down the complexity of the human genome is what finally brought it home for me. ----- I was concerned about what actually happens with my genetic information when submitted to 23andMe, so when they approached me and asked me if I wanted to make a video I decided to investigate it top to bottom. Visiting the Lab and...

The director of the National Institutes of Health revealed Wednesday that confronting death sparked his journey from atheism to Christianity. Dr. Francis Collins, NIH director and leader of the Human Genome Project, recounted to Bloomberg’s David Rubenstein how facing the reality of death and the questions it posed during his third year at medical school led him to become a Christian. The conversation, published Wednesday, revealed that Collins initially settled on agnosticism and then shifted toward atheism before ultimately placing his faith in Jesus Christ. Collins said that his spiritual journey began in college where he first confronted differing ideas...

The Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation says a paternity test has disproved a Spanish woman's claim that she is the surrealist artist's daughter. The foundation said on Wednesday that the Madrid court that ordered the DNA test informed it that Maria Pilar Abel, a 61-year-old tarot card reader, has no biological relationship with Dali. Abel has long alleged her mother had an affair with Dali while working as a domestic helper in Figueres and claimed she had the right to part of his vast estate. The foundation said the court supervising the tests had informed its lawyers that Abel was not Dali's...

With the rise of prenatal screening tests across Europe and the United States, the number of babies born with Down syndrome has significantly decreased, but few countries have come as close to eradicating Down syndrome births as Iceland. Since prenatal screening tests were introduced in Iceland in the early 2000s, the vast majority of women -- close to 100 percent -- who received a positive test for Down syndrome terminated their pregnancy.

Despite what you might've seen in 1950s monster movies, it's difficult to raise mutant ants. For years biologists have altered the genetics of organisms as varied as mice and rice. Mutant fruit flies are a laboratory staple. But ants' complex life cycle hampered efforts to grow genetically engineered ants — until now.

DNA is shedding light on the people who built Greece's earliest civilizations. Researchers analysed genetic data from skeletons dating to the Bronze Age, a period marked by the emergence of writing, complex urban planning and magnificent art and architecture. These ancient Aegean people were mostly descended from farmers who had settled the region thousands of years earlier. But they showed signs of genetic - and possibly cultural - contact with people to the north and to the east. Dr Iosif Lazaridis, from Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts, and colleagues focussed on burials from the Minoan civilization, which flourished on the...

The University of Iowa’s student newspaper has announced the discovery of a special privilege which intelligent people acquire as an accident of birth. This new privilege — called “cognitive privilege” — functions in essentially the same way as white privilege. The Daily Iowan revealed the discovery of this new privilege earlier this week. Garden-variety white privilege “is an important topic that deserves a public discussion,” the op-ed on “cognitive privilege” explains, but it is also “prudent to at least mention the wider concept contained therein: that of privilege itself.” Privilege in general is “the receipt of certain benefits wholly through...