Researchers have made an unexpectedly sudden advance in synthesizing long molecules of DNA, creating concern the technique might be used to create the smallpox virus.
Researchers have proposed a new system of DNA analysis that would allow field biologists to quickly scan a specimen and compare it against a global database of identified species. The system of DNA 'bar codes' could assist in the urgent task of cataloging unknown species before their ranks are decimated by extinction.
Scientists analyzing the genomes of microbes believe that they have reconstructed the pivotal event -- the merger of two primitive bacterial-type cells into a eukaryote -- that created the one-celled organism from which all animals and plants are descended, including people.
The recent production of the first human cloned embryo in Seoul highlighted the price the United States and other Western nations may pay for their unresolved debate over human embryonic stem cells: if they lose their technical lead, they also forfeit the chance to set the ethical rules of the game.
The leader of a national scientific organization has sought the advice of the National Academy of Sciences on whether scientific journals should withhold information that may aid bioterrorists or countries contemplating biological warfare.
With the Human Genome Project — the effort to work out the sequence of the three billion chemical letters that embody human heredity — early complete, biologists are facing a daunting transition. They must move from their traditional pursuit of understanding one gene at a time to the challenge of figuring out how tens of thousands of genes work in concert in the human cell.
Dr. J. Craig Venter told a Congressional committee today that his company, the Celera Corporation, had finished analyzing all necessary pieces of human DNA and would assemble the whole human genome within three to six weeks, far earlier than expected.