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DNA in the Trenches: How to Identify Fallen Soldiers

27 Jan 2023

Last week, we were told that DNA performed a bit of a miracle: it identified a man who was born in 1894 and who died during the First World War. His name was Percy Howarth. He was born in...

Edison's Inadvertant Folly

9 Dec 2022

It all started in Bavaria, southern Germany, 1895. Dr. Roentgen, a physicist, noticed a spooky greenish ray seeping through the completely sealed test tube and projected onto the screen wall. What...

Mitochondria: A Story of Mothers, Teenagers, and Energy

30 Sep 2022

Certain concepts simply irk me. They are often needlessly complicated and their meaning gets distorted in an attempt to make them understandable. Take, for example, the idea of a Mitochondrial Eve.

The Yummy Hype of Nutrigenomics

2 Sep 2022

Should you let your genes decide what you eat? The field of nutrigenomics certainly leans in that direction. Frustratingly, there are two sides to nutrigenomics. On the one hand, it is a research...

When Drinking Tea, You Get a Mouthful of Bug DNA

5 Jul 2022

There are bugs in your cup of tea. Not whole bugs (hopefully not). But the essence of a hundred species of insects can be found in that tea bag you buy from the store. Even if you have been sipping...

How Nature Solved the Problem of Too Much DNA

16 Jun 2022

When you consider how babies are made, you bump up against a basic math problem. No need for calculus here, or even the mental gymnastics of carrying the one. It’s a problem of doubling.

Non-smoker’s lung cancer and the hidden link

31 Dec 2021

The link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer is widely acknowledged. But not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer and not everyone who gets lung cancer is a smoker. How does one contract the...

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