Genetic engineering is moving from the lab bench into clinics, farms, and even family planning decisions, promising to change ...

Ultrasound of a fetus in the fourth month of pregnancy. (iStock) Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week, we’re talking about human ...

In a giant feat of genetic engineering, scientists have created bacteria that make proteins in a radically different way than all natural species do. By Carl Zimmer At the heart of all life is a code.

Imagine a scenario, perhaps a few years from now, in which Canada decides to release thousands of mosquitoes genetically modified to fight the spread of a devastating mosquito-borne illness. While ...

At a meeting of top conservation groups this week, a bioethics question took center stage: Should scientists be allowed to tinker with the genes of wild plants and animals? The tentative consensus so ...

We all know that the world is changing. Fast. But do we know where it is going? Not exactly. That being the case, how can we control where it is going? And who is the "we" in control? In Hacking ...

Fifty years ago today, scientists met to set safety limits on the new field of genetic engineering. This week researchers meet again to discuss big questions as biotechnology grows more powerful.

IN THE EARLY days of gene editing, biologists had a molecular tool kit that was somewhat akin to a printing press. Which is to say, altering DNA was a messy, labor-intensive process of loading genes ...

Working on a remote island, scientists think they can use genetic engineering to block a malaria-carrying species of mosquito from spreading the disease — and do it in just a few months. But ...