Tag: Genetics

The falling cost of genome sequencing is allowing scientists to begin studying the complete genomes of sufferers of genetic diseases.

Don’t believe everything you read about genes and disease in prestigious journals like Science and Nature, say Marcus Munafò and Jonathan Flint. A lot of it is simply wrong. The discovery of genes for a certain behaviour, for schizophrenia, for happiness, always get good press coverage, usually based on publication in a respected scientific journal such as Science or Nature. But here’s an odd thing. In the years following media coverage of discoveries of a gene for depression, for intelligence, and so on, journals less prestigious than Science or Nature often publish reports that contradict the original claim, some even saying that the findings are quite compatible with chance.

IBM scientists are using DNA scaffolding to build tiny circuit boards

President Barack Obama has chosen influential genetic scientist Francis Collins to head the National Institutes of Health. Known for helping to unravel the human genetic codes, he is also known for trying to find common ground between belief in God and science and is author of the 2007 best-seller The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.

Book Review: In The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, Steven Pinker challenged the assumption that people are molded by society and their upbringing, raising awkward questions about race and intelligence, aggression, greed and free will.

Pope Benedict XVI’s scientists have given their blessing to genetically modified crops as a possible solution to world hunger and poverty

For the purposes of science God doesn’t exist. But for all practical purposes, that makes no difference

In an interview for God and the Scientists, to be broadcast tonight in Channel 4’s series on Christianity, Richard Dawkins declares: “Darwin removed the main argument for God’s existence.”