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The Auchencorth Moss air quality monitoring station in Scotland (credit: National Physical Laboratory / Local Site Operator)

Air pollution monitors have been accidentally harvesting wildlife DNA

5 June 2023

DNA from plants’ and animals’ shed cells gets caught in air filters at pollution monitoring stations, providing a valuable source of data for tracking biodiversity

Nanoscale robotic ‘hand’ made of DNA could be used to detect viruses

28 May 2023

A tiny hand crafted out of DNA has jointed fingers that can be used to grab small objects like gold nanoparticles or viruses

DNA from 25,000-year-old tooth pendant reveals woman who wore it

3 May 2023

A new technique for extracting DNA from ancient artefacts without destroying them could give us unprecedented insights about the people who made or wore them

Computer made of DNA works out prime factors of 6 and 15

31 March 2023

Simple calculations, such as factoring low numbers, can be made by mixing together differently shaped strands of DNA

A drone approaching a branch for sampling

Drone with sticky patches studies biodiversity by bumping into trees

18 January 2023

A drone has revealed information on the animals inhabiting a tree's canopy simply by brushing against branches and collecting loose particles of environmental DNA with its sticky surfaces

Parasitic DNA makes us age faster - but we're not sure why

21 December 2022

Genetic parasites called retrotransposons become more active as we age, and an animal study suggests this may trigger immune responses that shorten our lifespans

Mastodons, hares, geese and reindeer in a forest

DNA from 2 million years ago is the oldest ever recovered

7 December 2022

DNA bound to mineral particles in ancient sediment reveals that north Greenland once had spruce forests populated by hares, reindeer and even mastodons

Geneticist Svante Pääbo has been awarded a Nobel prize for his work on evolutionary genetics

Nobel prize awarded for study of human evolution using ancient DNA

3 October 2022

Geneticist Svante Pääbo has been awarded a Nobel prize for his work on evolutionary genetics

Telomeres shortening with each round of cell division

Exceeding weekly alcohol recommendations linked to short chromosomes

8 August 2022

Regions of repetitive DNA sequence called telomeres cap our chromosomes, with shorter telomeres being linked to Alzheimer's disease, cancer and heart disease

Genetically engineered Escherichia coli is involved in the growth of many chemicals and drugs, such as insulin, but unmodified versions of the bacteria can be infected by viruses

E. coli that is recoded to be virus resistant may aid drug production

4 August 2022

Changing Escherichia coli's genetic code may enable the recoded bacterium to be grown in large vats for drug production, without the risk of a viral infection upending the process