When my middle school class read Tuck Everlasting, the novel about a girl who befriends a family who drank from a magical stream and gained eternal life, I was conflicted. The moral of the story was ...

What makes every person unique? Part of the answer is in our genes. A gene is a basic unit of heredity, the means by which traits get passed from one generation to the next, and genetics is the study ...

Environmental factors such as lifestyle and the medications you take influence the effects your genes have on your body — and can clarify how diseases develop. When you purchase through links on our ...

Dr. Conley is the author of “The Social Genome: The New Science of Nature and Nurture.” Since Francis Galton coined the phrase “nature versus nurture” 150 years ago, the debate about what makes us who ...

The human microbiome is essential for good health. It affects digestion, immune system activity, and how the body regulates metabolism. The gut microbiota is a complex community of microorganisms, ...

Findings suggest that new genes can form by repurposing fragments of ancestral genes while incorporating entirely new coding regions (the protein-coding parts of the DNA). This innovative concept ...

Arun Durvasula has received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Science. Sitting in my doctor’s examination room, I was surprised when she told me, “Genetics ...

Multiple sclerosis isn’t inherited, but having a family member with the disease can increase your chance of having the condition. While genetics influences your risk, environmental factors also play a ...

A new study, published in Neuropsychopharmacology, uses two large gene databases to identify health traits associated with coffee consumption. Although the research does not answer the enduring “Is ...