Centuries-old genetic material can solve historical mysteries, from lost species to what killed Napoleon’s army.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Around the world, DNA analysis is the gold standard for identifying human remains following these ...

A closeup look at colibactin’s structure reveals chemical motifs that guide its mutation-wreaking “warheads” to specific stretches of DNA.

Russell has a PhD in the history of medicine, violence, and colonialism. His research has explored topics including ethics, science governance, and medical involvement in violent contexts. Russell has ...

A deeper understanding of how DNA changes over generations helps scientists learn why people differ and how diseases develop. Until recently, many fast-changing parts of the human genome remained ...

A genetic match to an ancient person doesn't mean you're more related genealogically. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. In 2022, we ...

In 2022, we reported the DNA sequences of 33 medieval people buried in a Jewish cemetery in Germany. Not long after we made the data publicly available, people started comparing their own DNA with ...

Scientists have been using ancient DNA to investigate questions about extinct animals since 1984, when researchers recovered two pieces of DNA from a museum specimen of a quagga, a zebra-like species ...

For decades, biologists treated DNA as a static string of letters, a linear code that cells read like text on a page. A new ...

In this project, volunteers will collect eDNA from around 800 lakes around the world. Credit: Kristy Deiner Taking an accurate census of the organisms in an ecosystem is a challenging task—an observer ...

As the rate of humanity’s data creation increases exponentially with the rise of AI, scientists have been interested in DNA as a way to store digital information. After all, DNA is nature’s way of ...