New Letters Added to the Genetic Alphabet

Amid the chaos of revolutionary France, one man’s mathematical obsession gave way to a calculation that now underpins much of mathematics and physics. The calculation, called the Fourier transform, decomposes any function into its parts. The story What Is the Fourier Transform? f ...  Show more

The groundbreaking proof assistant Lean acts as a sort of automatic quality control. It’s gaining ground in the math world — in part because it can interact with AI to open new avenues of inquiry. But there are concerns, too. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Pate ...  Show more

Gene editing was a new idea in the mid-1970s. So when Harvard and MIT planned new research in recombinant DNA, alarm bells went off. "People were worried about a 'Frankengene,'" says Lydia Villa-Komaroff, then a freshly minted PhD. Amidst a political circus, the city of Cambridge ...  Show more

Every cell that's ever lived has been the result of the four-letter genetic alphabet: A, T, C and G -- the basic units of DNA. But now that's changed. In a visionary talk, synthetic biologist Floyd E. Romesberg introduces us to the first living organisms created with six-letter D ...  Show more

with Jorge Conde (@jorgecondebio), David Reich, and Hanne Tidnam (@omnivorousread)

Trying to reconstruct the deep past of ancient humans out of present-day people has until now been like trying to reconstruct a bomb explosion in a room from bits of shrapnel, says David ...

Learn about how quadruple-helix DNA could help us fight cancer; how diversity improves technology, with materials scientist Ainissa Ramirez; and how cats domesticated themselves.Quadruple-helix DNA exists - and it might be useful for fighting cancers by Cameron DukeRare quadruple ...  Show more