Many repetitive regions of the genome have been considered "junk DNA" because the available technologies did not allow them ...

Mosquitoes haven’t always had a taste for human blood — partly because the tiny yet dangerous insects have been around a lot longer than humans. Pinpointing when mosquitoes shifted their preference to ...

The last two decades have seen a revolution in scientists' ability to reconstruct the past. This has been made possible through technological advances in the way DNA is extracted from ancient bones ...

Africa has long been known as the cradle of humanity. Fossils, tools and genetics all point there. Yet the deeper story of how the first modern humans lived, moved and mixed has stayed blurry. Too ...

The Denisovan people evolved a variant of the MUC19 immune gene, which eventually found its way into humans through inbreeding. In most of the world, that variant is rare, but it’s common among people ...

Imagine if you could spend a few months each winter in hibernation—you’re curled up in bed, your heart rate, body temperature, and brain activity drastically low. Then you emerge in the spring, ready ...

The team at GACT has been analysing sediments from Hohle Fels cave in Germany. GACT The last two decades have seen a revolution in scientists’ ability to reconstruct the past. This has been made ...