Category Archives: Genetics

Biochemistry, Chemistry, Consumer, Genetics, Green, Science, Technology, Weird

Driving by Larch Light

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Photo courtesy Glowing Plant.

Would you want to live in a world that looks like a Pandora knockoff, or blares like the wall decorations of a stoner crash pad? What if you couldn’t turn it off?

Such were the questions raised when a Kickstarter campaign launched to “create real glowing plants in a do-it-yourself biolab in California.” At first, observers merely wondered if the technology could work. But as time passed, their questions moved on to more troubling concerns regarding the unregulated spreading of genetically modified seeds…

Could glow-in-the-dark plants replace streetlights?

Biochemistry, Genetics, Paleontology, Science

Cloning, Hubris and the Dino-DNA “Use By” Date

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Be careful what your wish for. Photo by MathKnight and Zachi Evenor.

We know surprisingly little about juvenile dinosaurs, so every time a paleontologist uncovers a clutch of eggs or embryos, it is cause for celebration – at least until someone in the media gets hold of the story and asks The Dreaded Question: “Is Jurassic Park only a few years away?” or some variant thereof.

Being a member of said media, I am occasionally assigned one of these stories. And, although I don’t much care for sensationalism in science coverage, I’m generally too thrilled to be researching dinosaurs and cloning to complain very much. Instead, I see it as an opportunity to tell a deeper story, like this one.

Could we resurrect dinosaurs from fossil embryos?

Anthropology, Culture, Genetics, History, Neuroscience, Psychology, Science

Questioning the Decline of Human Intelligence

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Photo by Dan Kassem.

Science still struggles to define, measure or understand intelligence, let alone definitively nail down its genetic components. Yet one Stanford geneticist argues that civilization was a bad move, and that human intelligence has gradually ratcheted down  since leaving its hunter-gatherer days behind.

Is the Peter Principle killing our intellect, or is Crabtree’s model another unripe hypothesis that received too much media attention? Read on to find out.

Did human intelligence peak thousands of years ago?

Anthropology, Astronomy, Biochemistry, Genetics, Health, How To, Psychology, Science, Space, Technology, Travel

Defining the “right stuff”

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Astronaut visor reflection
Photo courtesy NASA.

Space travel isn’t all glamor: Body odor and bad breath hang around; food and filth float; emotional pressure builds; weightlessness degrades bone and muscles; the body experiences higher radiation levels; and risks of kidney stones and eye problems mount.

Clearly, astronauts require a pioneering spirit, but near-future space colonists will need more than guts and gusto to thrive en route to, and on, other worlds. What constitutes an ideal astronaut candidate? Should we select space travelers based on genetic risk factors? Could we train colonists from childhood to be better adapted, mentally and physically, to life in space? And would we be willing to go to the extreme of changing what it means to be human?

How to Build a Better Space Explorer

Consumer, Culture, Genetics, Science, Technology

Study fails commercial ancestry tests

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America may be a melting pot, but the result is generally more stew than fondue; for many of us, where we came from—whether by boat or ice bridge—constitutes a significant part of our identity. Beyond whatever social implications it may have, our heritage slumbers within us in ways we don’t fully understand, yet are fascinated by.

It’s no wonder commercial genetic ancestry tests are so appealing.  Still, a little caveat emptor is in order: According to an article in the journal Science, consumers who plop down their Benjamins for genetic answers may not be getting what they bargained for.

Study probes genetic ancestry tests