io9: Genetic Engineering

Silkworms engineered to produce spider silk could lead to better body armor

Tim Barribeau — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:28:23 PST

Spider silk is one of those wonderful materials whose incredibly tensile properties are the stuff of myth. That's why it's been the target of years of transgenic research. As far back as 2000, researchers were genetically engineering other animals to produce it — like the infamous spider-goat. However, many of their attempts have had problems, either because so little silk is produced, or it requires extensive post-production to render it usable. Sure, you can milk spiders directly, but the process is slow, difficult, and extremely costly. More »

Pesky insects becoming resistant to genetically modified corn

Alasdair Wilkins — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 10:55:00 PST

One of the big advantages of genetically modified corn was its built-in pesticides, as it produces a toxin that kills destructive bugs. Now its resistance to pests is wearing off. Just as Jurassic Park taught us, life found a way. More »

Breakthrough: Gene Therapy Provides Full Protection from HIV Transmission in Mice

Robert T. Gonzalez — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 08:11:13 PST

For hundreds of years, immunization has been one of society's most elegant and dependable methods of disease prevention. Vaccines have been developed for infections ranging from measles to HPV. Many of us get vaccinated to protect ourselves against seasonal illness, or before traveling internationally. Vaccination is safe. It is dependable. It works. More »

The tiny genetic tweak that gives mice super strength

Esther Inglis-Arkell — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 08:00:00 PST

An inhibitor in your body might be sapping your strength, taking away your endurance, making you feel cold, and giving you diabetes. When scientists eliminated it, they unlocked the key to super strength in both mice and worms. Find out what's in your body that's making you weak. More »

Fruit fly intestines could hold a vital clue to increasing human longevity

Alasdair Wilkins — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:09:17 PDT

There seems to be one surefire way to increase longevity in animals. It's caloric restriction, which means placing them on a near-starvation diet. We don't know if that could work on humans... but fruit flies might be able to give us the answer. More »

Human Blood Serum Synthesized From Rice

Tim Barribeau — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 09:20:00 PDT

Human serum albumin, or HSA, is a crucial blood protein which is used in the treatment of severe burns, liver cirrhosis, and hemorrhagic shock, is used in vaccine production, and has one rather sticky requirement — it has to be extracted from clean, donor blood. More »

10 Words You Might Think Came from Science (But Are Really From Science Fiction  )

Jeff Prucher -- Oxford University Press Blog — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:00:00 PDT

Last week it came to our attention that the phrase "blast off" was coined—not in a purely scientific context, but a science fictional one—by E. E. Smith, an early science fiction author often referred to as "the father of space opera." The term appeared in Smith's 1937 story Galactic Patrol, when one character inquires of another, "How long do you figure it'll be before it's safe for us to blast off?" More »

Genetically-modified salmon are closer than ever to a dinner plate near you

Robert T. Gonzalez — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:25:56 PDT

The super salmon are (almost) here. The Food and Drug Administration has reportedly finished its evaluation of the environmental impacts of the first fish genetically engineered (GE) for human consumption. More »

What happens when mice become autistic

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:17:08 PDT

In search of cures for autism, scientists have often used mice as a model. Some of the rodents display behaviors typical of human autism, and researchers use these mice as test subjects for experimental treatments. But now a group of researchers has figured out how to genetically engineer autistic mice, which could bring us closer than ever to understanding the genetic mechanisms underlying the condition. New Scientist reports: More »

What can this glow-in-the-dark kitten teach scientists about AIDS?

Robert T. Gonzalez — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:00:00 PDT

This picture of a glowing cat has not been altered in any way. The cat, on the other hand, has been altered quite a bit. A team of researchers has genetically engineered it to express green fluorescent protein (aka "GFP," originally found in jellyfish), which makes the cat glow green under ultraviolet light. More »

Scientists create spermless males to fight the spread of malaria

Robert T. Gonzalez — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 08:30:00 PDT

A female mosquito will mate just once in her entire lifetime. After doing the deed, her drive to mate is turned off, and her drive to lay fertilized eggs is turned on. Now, scientists from Imperial College London have tricked female mosquitoes into wasting their one go at fertility by swapping out normal males with spermless ones. More »

One woman's efforts to cheer up rats who are genetically engineered to be depressed

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 06 May 2011 16:21:52 PDT

Revital Cohen is a designer who came upon an ad for rats engineered to be depressed, sold by Genoway. She couldn't stop thinking about these sad animal-commodities. So she decided to design cages that would cheer the rodents up. More »

A virus could rewire your brain to help you lose weight

Tim Barribeau — Fri, 06 May 2011 11:00:00 PDT

Want to trick your brain into making you feel less hungry? Now a new study shows how scientists could use a virus to alter your brain so you don't get as hungry. More »

By 2040, you can eat (and excrete) your diagnosis

Esther Inglis-Arkell — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 12:30:00 PDT

Right now we have probiotic yogurt, but with genetically-engineered, color-changing bacteria, we may soon have diagnostic yogurt. I wonder who will be picked as the spokeswoman for that. More »

Feeding the world might require undoing 10,000 years of plant domestication

Alasdair Wilkins — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:10:00 PDT

The world is potentially headed into a serious food crisis, thanks to a combination of climate change, land degradation, and depletion of natural resources. And the solution to all this might mean taking plant species back to before their domestication. More »

The first three-parent babies could soon be born

Alasdair Wilkins — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:43:12 PDT

The technology is now in place for three different parents to contribute DNA to an embryo - two of them providing the 98% of DNA in the cell nucleus, while another provides the crucial 2% that is mitochondrial DNA. More »

Mutation breeding creates the world's most perfect orange

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:09:53 PDT

The KinnowLS mandarin orange, pictured at right, is incredibly sweet, has almost no seeds, a skin so thin it's easily peeled, and can grow in the desert. And it's a mutant created almost the same way Hulk was. More »

Modified Plants Guard Against Chemical Warfare

Ed Grabianowski — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 15:00:00 PST

If you're worried about pollutants or chemical attacks, you could surround your home with sophisticated (and expensive) detectors. In a few years, you might be able to do the job with specially engineered plants that instantly change color in the presence of a harmful substance. More »

Scientists engineer a light-controlled worm

Esther Inglis-Arkell — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 11:30:00 PST

Scientists have engineered a worm with neurons that respond to light, making it a living bio-bot. More »

Scientists engineer flu-stopping superchicken

Esther Inglis-Arkell — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 06:30:00 PST

Genetic modifications have created chickens that don't transmit flu to other chickens. Scientists hope that this will lead to healthier poultry and keep avian flu viruses from spreading to the human population. Will we soon be bowing to chicken overlords? More »

Disease-causing bacteria genetically engineered to produce medicine

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 08:00:00 PST

Usually we hear about E. coli bacteria when there's an outbreak of food poisoning. But now a group of engineers have turned these disease-causing bugs into a "production platform" for antibiotics. More »

Would you eat a steak that came from a test tube?

Heather Clisby -- BlogHer — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:30:00 PST

Will your hamburgers soon be grown in a vat? In vitro meat could solve a lot of the world's food problems, while helping the environment and reducing cruelty to animals. Blogher's Heather Clisby explains how. More »

Genetically altered trees could capture billions of tons of excess carbon every year

Alasdair Wilkins — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 14:30:00 PDT

We don't have enough trees to deal with all the massive amounts of carbon created each year, which is one of the major engines driving global warming. So what's the solution? Why, to genetically engineer better trees, of course. More »

Genetically-modified "super potato" could save lives

Alasdair Wilkins — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 13:15:29 PDT

Tired of potatoes that only leave you 62.5% full? Now a new genetically-modified potato has 1.6 times the protein of normal potatoes and way more amino acids. The next generation of transgenic tubers has arrived. More »

A bioengineered future in deep space

Paul Gilster - Centauri Dreams — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 14:15:00 PDT

NASA's Human Research Program is all about risk reduction, finding ways to counter fatigue and mitigate radiation damage, among other potential issues in space travel. But what if a different kind of program had evolved? More »

Halfthings (a.k.a. when will see centaurs and Mr. Spock?)

Kay Holt - Science In My Fiction — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 16:00:00 PDT

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Mermaids. Angels. Mister Spock. Speculative fiction sure enjoys a good mash-up, but how likely are we to see genuine human/other hybrids? It depends on what one means by ‘hybrid'. More »

Genetically engineered frog-insect nose can control robots

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:02:04 PDT

In what seems like a Cthulian moment of experimentation, scientists have fashioned a biotech "nose" by genetically engineering frog cells to behave like insect nose cells. And then they turned the hybrid cells into a control device for a robot. More »

A massive, "unprecedented escape" of genetically-modified crops into the wild

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:08:35 PDT

Genetically-modified canola has been breeding undetected in the American wilds for at least "several generations," say scientists. The escaped GM canola has already mutated into a never-before-seen strain, and now it may be modifying other plants too. More »

Genetically engineering the first malaria-proof mosquito

Alasdair Wilkins — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 08:30:00 PDT

Malaria kills a million people every year and infects 250 million more. The best way to prevent malaria is to stop mosquitoes from transmitting it – and we've just genetically engineered mosquitoes that are completely incapable of spreading the disease. More »

A drug for pregnant women that prevents lesbian daughters

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:46:33 PDT

A New York doctor named Maria New has been advising pregnant women to take a steroid called dexamethasone to prevent homosexuality and "masculine behavior" in their daughters. How did she get away with this form of anti-gay genetic engineering? More »

Friendly fungi could revolutionize rice farming

Tim Barribeau — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 13:34:46 PDT

By engineering a strain of symbiotic fungus, researchers have massively increased the growth rate of rice, and may help stave off the specter of global shortages of phosphates, which are essential minerals for plants. More »

Vincenzo Natali explains why Splice is not an anti-science film

Charlie Jane Anders — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:30:00 PDT

Splice, opening Friday, deals with the abuse of science and the ways in which genetic engineering could go horribly wrong. But it's not an anti-science film, insists director Vincenzo Natali, who talked to us at Wondercon. More »

Scientists create "artificial life" - synthetic DNA that can self-replicate

Tim Barribeau — Fri, 21 May 2010 06:30:00 PDT

In one of the biggest breakthroughs in recent history, scientists have created a synthetic genome that can self-replicate. So what does this mean? Are we about to become gray goo? More »

Genetically Engineered Terror Blooms In The Middle Of Summer

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:00:00 PST

This summer's movie slate just got a lot more interesting: Warner Bros. is releasing Vincenzo Natali's Splice on June 4. We've been dying to see this gene-splicing horror for ages, since we saw the NSFW concept art. [BoxOfficeMojo via Collider] More »

Futuristic And Genetically-Engineered Families That Already Exist

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:10:27 PST

We all know that IVF and other innovations can help infertile couples have children. But can science also help family structures emerge that have never existed before, like kids with three parents? It already has. Here are four examples. More »

Ten Science Stories That Changed Our Decade

Lauren Davis — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:30:00 PST

There is no doubt that science has become more like science fiction in the past decade, with amazing innovations and discoveries that increased our understanding of the universe. We list ten of the biggest science stories from the past decade. More »

Margaret Atwood Says She Doesn't Write Science Fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin Disagrees

Lauren Davis — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:30:00 PDT

Margaret Atwood insists that her novels aren't science fiction, as everything she writes either has happened or could happen today. But in looking at Atwood's latest novel, The Year of the Flood, science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin disagrees. More »

Monkeys Born Of Three Parents Usher In The Age Of The Super-Baby

Meredith Woerner — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:10:00 PDT

Four baby monkeys each have three parents — proving that you could have more than two, but also that that mitochondrial swapping can breed out genetic diseases once and for all. But why stop at three parents? More »

Scientists Create Dinosaurs By Tinkering With Chicken DNA

Annalee Newitz — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:30:00 PDT

If dinosaurs are the ancestors of chickens, could genetic engineers turn the clock back on chicken DNA and recreate T-Rex? A Canadian researcher thinks it's possible, and has begun experiments to do just that. More »

Is HBO the Next Destination for Science Fiction?

Lauren Davis — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:00:00 PDT

With some networks offering mixed signals about their futures with science fiction, we may increasingly rely on cable for compelling television about the future. Fortunately, HBO is stepping up, developing two new science fiction series with X-Files alum Frank Spotnitz. More »