Although there are striking differences between the cells that make up your eyes, kidneys, brain and toes, the DNA blueprint ...

Two naturally mummified individuals buried roughly 7,000 years ago in a Libyan rock shelter have yielded ancient genomes that reveal a previously unknown, long-isolated North African lineage. The ...

The X-Files was a sci-fi horror series based on both aliens and monsters, but there were stories inspired on real events.

In the central Sahara, where sand now buries ancient lakes, scientists have pulled genetic material from 7,000-year-old ...

A research team led by Zhiping Weng, Ph.D., and Jill Moore, Ph.D."18, at UMass Chan Medical School, has nearly tripled the known number of potential regulatory elements in the genome to 2.37 million, ...

Researchers have reconstructed ancient herpesvirus genomes from Iron Age and medieval Europeans, revealing that HHV-6 has been infecting humans for at least 2,500 years. Some people inherited the ...

How much of our genome really matters? Some argue that because most of our DNA is active, it must be doing something important. Others say even random DNA would be highly active. This has now been put ...

When ET phones home, it could be his last call. Contrary to sci-fi movie depictions, our first contact might not be with a super advanced alien civilization at the height of power. Rather, Ivy League ...

One of the most detailed 3D maps of how the human chromosomes are organized and folded within a cell's nucleus is published in Nature. Chromosomes are thread-like structures that carry a cell's ...

When cells proliferate, genomic DNA is precisely duplicated once per cell cycle. Abnormalities in this DNA replication process can cause alterations in genomic DNA, promoting cellular ageing, cancer, ...

Gerlinde Bigga does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond ...

This story first appeared in Trying!, a thoughtful, funny, wide-ranging daily newsletter featuring essays from the mind of Matt Gross. You can sign up for them here. Those were simple aliens for ...