Despite rapid advances in reading the genetic code of living organisms, scientists still face a major challenge today—knowing a gene's sequence does not automatically reveal what it does. Even in…

The genetic code is the recipe for life, and provides the instructions for how to make proteins, generally using just 20 amino acids. But certain groups of microbes have an expanded genetic code, in which one or two additional amino acids are inserted into the protein—a finding that has been leveraged for bioengineering.

Multiple genetic codes developed during the evolution of eukaryotes and bacteria, yet no alternative genetic code is known for archaea. We used proteomics to confirm our prediction that certain archae...

A NASA spacecraft has returned asteroid samples that hold not only the pristine building blocks for life but also the salty remains of an ancient water world.

A person's metabolism is as unique as their fingerprint, and so is their risk of developing certain diseases. A better understanding of the genetic influences on metabolism could open up new therapeut...

Scientists have engineered E. coli to run dual genetic codes, expanding the standard 64-codon system to include up to 34 amino acids. This breakthrough enables the creation of proteins with non-natural building blocks like fluorescent tags and photocrosslinkers. Though growth slows slightly, this technology paves the way for advanced therapeutics and materials. Microbes become programmable factories for molecules beyond nature's design—showing the genetic code is adaptable. Subscribe for more groundbreaking science! Tools used for generation Text Gemini Narator Azure TTS Clips Pexel Rendering Remotion

We show that the standard genetic code is a precise algebraic object, not a contingent table. The 64 codons are the weights of the spinor of so(13); Watson-Crick complementation is the antipode w→-w; ...

Finding adds to the bigger picture of how humans developed such large brains.