The reconstruction of a once-living landscape in northern Greenland from 2 million years ago, deduced from bits of DNA bound to minerals…
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post A 2-Million-Year-Old Ecosystem in the Throes of Climate Change Revealed in Environmental DNARead more
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post On COVID Origin and Omicron Persistence: This Geneticist’s ViewRead more
The latest phrase borrowed from biology in COVID conversations is convergent evolution. It refers to pairs of unrelated species that look similar…
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post Ten Lessons from COVID: A Round-up of ExpertsRead more
Planning for the next pandemic begins with acknowledging what we did wrong for COVID-19. As the situation has calmed, experts are weighing…
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post The Genomic Scars of Antisemitism, 2022Read more
Between election news and the ever-earlier encroachment of Christmas, an important November anniversary of a horrific event goes mostly unnoticed: Kristallnacht, the…
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post My Five-Year Breast CancerversaryRead more
Five years ago today, I learned that I had breast cancer. I didn’t find out in the usual way, an alarmingly ambiguous…
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post Halloween Evokes Thoughts on OrganoidsRead more
When the jello brains and gummy organs of Halloween come out, my thoughts turn to organoids. These are tiny organs, or parts…
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post The Age of the Pangenome DawnsRead more
“Pan” has several meanings. As a noun, it refers to “a round metal container that often has a long handle and a…
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post Nobel Prize to Paleogenetics Rockstar Svante Pääbo Evokes Memories of Being Drawn to ScienceRead more
One of my favorite places as a child was the American Museum of Natural History. While most kids would rush to the…
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post Two Newly-Approved Gene Therapies Cost MillionsRead more
The FDA recently approved two gene therapies with hefty price tags, the first for an inherited anemia and the second for a…
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post Thoughts on a Return of PolioRead more
When a case of polio showed up in Rockland county, just north of New York City, in July 2022, and then polioviruses…
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post Mellow Yellow: A Biotech Way to Make SaffronRead more
Biotechnology mass-produces valuable molecules from nature, from drugs to textiles to a jellyfish protein that lights up most anything a glowing green…
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post Can Curcumin, Black Pepper, and Ginger Treat Retinitis Pigmentosa? Steve Fialkoff’s Excellent ExperimentRead more
Steve Fialkoff and I weren’t friends at James Madison High School in Brooklyn, NY. We were in the class of 1972; earlier…