By David Wilson, Technical University of Braunschweig
I’ve been an ecologist in Australia for the last ten years, working for both government agencies and as a university researcher. Over this time, funding for fieldwork has been increasingly hard to secure…
Genetic information should only be shared with full and informed consent.
Jack Fussell
Yesterday on The Conversation, Timothy Smith from the Florey Neurosciences Institute argued that in order to improve genetics research, we need free and open access to genetic information. But while the…
Technical, financial and legal barriers stop the sharing of vital information in medical research.
Frans de Waal/ Wikimedia Commons
A paper published today in Science Translational Medicine calls for the open sharing of clinical trial data among the medical research community. Researchers argue data sharing would lead to faster, more…
A whole genome test is meaningless unless you can interpret it.
Dave Faryam
By Rony Duncan, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and Martin Delatycki, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
It’s now possible to access genetic testing from your living room or office, without the need to visit a health professional.
There are many reasons why you might like to get a genetic test. Maybe someone…
Lack of genetic diversity makes it hard for island-bound species to survive when threats arrive.
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
We have all heard at some time or another that Australia has the worst record of mammal extinctions in history, with many of our unique and vulnerable critters succumbing only years after the first Europeans…
It's time for a change in the way we categorise life on Earth.
ஆ ன ந் த ம் / a n a n d h a m
It might surprise you to learn that the idea of a “species” is one of the more ambiguous concepts in science.
Originally, “species” (meaning “kind” or “sort” in Latin) was used to refer to organisms that…
Rejoice: rumours of male extinction may be out of line.
StuartOlver
There’s something degenerate in every male (no, seriously). We members of the facial-hair-bearing sex carry, among the 23 pairs of chromosomes in every one of our cells, an odd pair of sex-chromosomes…
Genetic variants that contribute to the risk of schizophrenia are present in everyone.
Flickr/Akelei van Dam
A quarter of the risk for developing schizophrenia can be traced to genetic variations that are common in the general population, a study by Queensland researchers has found.
A new method of genetic analysis…
Researchers have taken important steps in conserving endangered cats.
dragaroo/Flickr
Looking at embryonic cells allows researchers to understand many of the fundamental questions about how an animal’s genes are structured and the role they play in developing the adult animal. This information…
The demise of the woolly mammoth could teach us much about our effect on other species.
George Teichmann
When we think of the last 50,000 years of prehistory, particularly the “Ice Age”, extinct species such as the woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros often spring to mind.
Did humans bring about the extinction…
Motherhood has made women's immune systems stronger.
Wendkuni
Research published in this month’s BioEssays confirms something many of us have always known: women have stronger immune systems than men.
We fight off infections more readily, are less likely to develop…
It's clear that some people are just more predisposed to getting melanoma with the same level sun exposure than others.
Andrey/Wikimedia Commonns
An international study published today in Nature Genetics, has discovered two genetic variants that increase the risk of melanoma.
Melanoma is not the most common type of skin cancer but it is one of…
Psychologists have debated whether our interests are a result of nature or nurture for more than 100 years.
pbkwee/Flickr
So, you’ve got your father’s blonde hair and you were raised in a cricket-mad household and you like cricket. But is it your genes or your childhood that’s responsible for your love of cricket or your…
So what's it to be, buddy, my cave or yours?
Kaptain Kobold
We humans had sex with Neandertals; we bonked the relatives of Neandertals; we got down and dirty with members of an as-yet unrecognised African population; and we, of course, got jiggy with each other…
Francis Galton pioneered the concept of eugenics in this lab in London in the late 19th century.
Flickr/Science Museum London
Eugenics — the science of improving the race —was a powerful influence on the development of Western civilisation in the first half of the twentieth century. And Melbourne’s elite were among its chief…
A stroll down the personal growth aisle of the bookstore tells us, among other things, Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps.
The answer, as authors Alan and Barbara Pease delightedly inform…
GM is not being used to make fishbread Frankenfoods.
Dave Lifson/Flickr
The Conversation asked CSIRO scientist, Richard Richards, to look at the top five myths about genetic modification (GM), and correct the public record.
Myth one: GM is just haphazard, imprecise cross…
The man behind the mask. Ned Kelly's skeleton can finally be laid to rest.
the euskadi 11
By Dadna Hartman, Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine
The remains of iconic bushranger Ned Kelly have been positively identified by forensic scientists more than a century after his hanging in 1880.
The identification was made after an exhaustive forensic…
Despite attacks, CSIRO isn't giving up on genetic research.
AAP
Just as medical researchers work to unlock the role our human genes play in disease, CSIRO investigates how plant genes can be used to boost the health benefits of food, increase crop yields and prevent…
These genes exert their influence through the immune system.
Flickr/Natashacld
In one of the largest human genetic studies ever undertaken, scientists have identified the major common genetic variants that contribute to the cause of the devastating neurological disease, multiple…
A test case is slated to challenge Myriad's claim for breast cancer genetic mutations next February.
TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³/Flickr
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has found Myriad Genetics is entitled to patents on two sets human genetic mutations used to predict if women have an increased risk of breast and ovarian…
Understanding DNA is vital to developing our knowledge of complex diseases.
DNA Art Online
Imagine taking a thousand copies of a phone book, shredding them all together, then trying to use the overlapping pieces to reconstruct a copy.
This is a simple problem compared to assembling the human…
Animals aren't to blame – the bacteria came from humans.
The genomes of the recent German E. coli outbreak have revealed crucial insights into the origins of this deadly strain. The bacteria was found in German bean sprouts but it didn’t originate from the gut…
Specialists can go on a genetic fishing expedition tracking down potential relatives.
Doctors are supposed to keep patient information confidential unless told otherwise, right? Well, not any longer.
If you’re diagnosed with a genetic disorder, medical specialists are now allowed to contact…
Stem cells have successfully been transplanted to restore sight.
BWJones
In 2002, the Australian federal Parliament passed two Acts to regulate human embryo and stem cell research.
The Prohibition of Human Cloning Act banned practices that people seemed to be most worried…
Hard laws and regulations are needed to protect our genetic information.
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
The rapid development of genetic science and technology holds hope for greatly improved health outcomes, with better diagnostics, treatments and cures, as well as the beginning of pharmacogenomics and…
Genetic change in humans is driven by cultural change, for example, blue eyes.
Corey Butler
The human genome provides penetrating and unexpected insights into human individual and collective history. Among them is the counterintuitive idea that genes are at the mercy of experience – that what…
Heart attacks damage important muscles but now scientists think that a special protein can awaken the stem cells that grow new muscles.
Flickr
Vital heart muscles damaged during cardio arrest can be replaced by stem cells within the organ with the help of a special protein, scientists have discovered.
Heart attacks cause dangerous damage to…
Dialysis is one of the only currently available treatments for kidney disease.
AAP
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a significant and growing global public health problem. But the creation of a new type of stem cell offers new hope for therapies and drugs for this worldwide problem…
Inherited only from mothers, the mitochondria may harbour male-harming mutations
ddc c z/flickr
As many as a one in 20 men is infertile, but in many cases the underlying cause for it remains unknown.
Recent research has found that a peculiarity in the way in which the DNA inside our mitochondria…
Mapping genetic diseases will reduce the unknown risks in family planning.
flickr/Mrs Flinger
Thanks to the genetic revolution and the internet, we can now see a way to map genetic diseases and reduce the burden of inherited conditions.
Each year more than 3 million children born with a serious…
The Bill seeks to close the loophole opened by the US Patent Office 30 years ago.
AAP
Read the argument against the proposed legislation
Patents are only to be for granted inventions – that’s the intent of the Patents Act 1990, it has been the law for nearly 400 years, and it’s also what…
Does homosexuality have something to offer everyone?
marlin harm/Flickr
Sexual orientation has long been cause for discussion and controversy, but just where does our sexual orientation come from? Are people “born gay” or are environmental causes at play?
Historically, many…
Francis Crick (right) and James Watson (far left) started a revolution in medicine.
AAP
By Warwick Anderson, National Health and Medical Research Council
Medical science has changed the human health and lifespan in the last century and now another revolution is coming in health.
This revolution will entail closing the chasm between what medical evidence…
Try as you might, there's no proof you can control your genetic expression.
mutsmuts/Flickr
Can the way we think influence the way we feel? Most of us would say yes. But can thinking affect the way our bodies behave on a genetic level? Can we, in essence, think ourselves better? A growing band…
Your grandparents' lifespan can offer some valuable clues.
joeduty/Flickr
It’s well known that humans are living longer than ever before, thanks partially to developments such as sanitation and modern medicine. But will it ever be possible for humans to live forever?
The late…
A vocal minority opposes stem cell research on moral grounds.
Elizabeth Ng
The two pieces of Commonwealth legislation strictly regulate research use of human embryos in Australia are currently being reviewed. The Australian public is overwhelmingly in favour of stem cell research…
Analysing the genome has revealed a great deal about common diseases.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
A few days ago, Jonathan Latham of The Guardian newspaper decried the failure of modern genetics to make inroads on common diseases. I think he got things very wrong.
Latham claimed that:
Despite more…
