In the remote highlands of Panama, in tanks protected by netting, barbed wire and guard dogs, swim the world’s most expensive and scrutinized fish. These swift-growing salmon have been at the centre of a 18-year, US$60-million battle to bring the first genetically modified (GM) animal to US dinner ...

A mutation that gives people rock-bottom cholesterol levels has led geneticists to what could be the next blockbuster heart drug.When Sharlayne Tracy showed up at the clinical suite in the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas last January, the bandage wrapped around her left wrist ...

Activity in a particular region of the cortex could tell whether a convict is likely to get in trouble again.In a twist that evokes the dystopian science fiction of writer Philip K. Dick, neuroscientists have found a way to predict whether convicted felons are likely to commit crimes ...

The brains of two rats on different continents have been made to act in tandem. When the first, in Brazil, uses its whiskers to choose between two stimuli, an implant records its brain activity and signals to a similar device in the brain of a rat in the ...

For the first five months of Harrison Harkins’ life, doctors had little idea about what was causing his spinal malformation and inability to gain weight. But in November 2011, Matthew Bainbridge, a computational biologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, found a clue. After analysing genetic ...

A moratorium on research that modifies the potential virulence of avian influenza virus has now been lifted.An international group of scientists this week ended a year-long moratorium on controversial work to engineer potentially deadly strains of the H5N1 avian flu virus in the lab.Researchers agreed to temporarily halt ...