Mystery of the potato's origins solved by genetics
31 July 2025
Around 8 million years ago, an ancestor of modern tomatoes in South America hydridised with a plant called Etuberosum, and this reshuffling of genes gave rise to the potato
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Premium
An ancient Egyptian's complete genome has been read for the first time
2 July 2025
The genome of a man who lived in Egypt over 4500 years ago offers a new window on the ancient society and hints at connections with Mesopotamia
Colossal scientist now admits they haven’t really made dire wolves
22 May 2025
Despite a huge media fanfare in which Colossal Biosciences claimed to have resurrected the extinct dire wolf, the company's chief scientist now concedes that the animals are merely modified grey wolves
Can genetically engineered 'woolly' mice help bring back the mammoth?
4 March 2025
Colossal Biosciences has altered several genes in mice to make them look more mammoth-like, but the company is far from its goal of fully resurrecting woolly mammoths by 2028
How to think about the most contentious ideas in science
26 February 2025
When faced with real-life controversy over the thorniest of research topics, we can seek guidance from fiction
A podcast explores how sport is drawing the line between men and women
4 September 2024
The deeply researched podcast series Tested tells the stories of Namibian sprinter Christine Mboma and Kenya’s Maximila Imali, and how their early successes made their womanhood suspect to some
Last common ancestor of all life emerged far earlier than thought
12 July 2024
All life on Earth can trace its origin to LUCA, the last universal common ancestor – and now it seems this organism may have lived a few hundred million years after the planet formed
Woolly mammoth DNA exceptionally preserved in freeze-dried 'jerky'
11 July 2024
A complete genome has been extracted from a 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth, which might bring us closer to resurrecting the species
Stunning blue-skinned frog is a rare genetic mutant
9 July 2024
The magnificent tree frog (Litoria splendida) is normally a vibrant green, but conservationists in Australia have spotted a blue-skinned individual
Evolutionary story of Australia's dingoes revealed by ancient DNA
8 July 2024
Dingoes, the native wild dogs of Australia, arrived on the continent more than 3000 years ago and their gene pool has had little input from domestic dogs
