Jan 26, 2022 | Science & Technology
By Deborah Fuller The two most successful coronavirus vaccines developed in the U.S. – the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines – are both mRNA vaccines. The idea of using genetic material to produce an immune response has opened up a world of research and potential medical...
Aug 19, 2020 | Science & Technology
By David Welch Genetic surveillance — a technology that uses the genetic fingerprint of a virus to track its spread — is part of the public health response to New Zealand’s new COVID-19 community outbreak and could help pinpoint its source. There are now 17 cases of...
Jul 11, 2019 | Science & Technology
New research has suggested a novel way to measure and potentially predict previously unknown locations that may be prone to earthquakes. The study, led by Professor Jon Waters at the University of Otago, confirms that the region around the New Zealand city of Dunedin...
Aug 23, 2018 | Science & Technology
What are the hidden costs of civilisation? Could civilisation be behind disease, mental illness, climate change, and religious fundamentalism? Spencer Wells thinks it might just be. Maria Armoudian speaks to Wells about his book Pandora’s Seed: The Unforeseen Cost of...
Jun 14, 2018 | Science & Technology
Earlier this year, a 72-year-old former police officer named Joseph D’Angelo was arrested for a spate of rapes and murders attributed to the elusive Golden State Killer between 1976 and 1986. D’Angelo’s arrest has raised profound questions about ethical uses of DNA...
Feb 13, 2018 | Science & Technology
For many years geneticists and psychologists have worked in separate labs on factors such as our genetic codes and our experiences that they each thought were affecting our physical and mental health, respectively. But it may be that our experiences are affecting our...