Last month I had the opportunity to go to the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution conference in the striking city of Barcelona. This is the premiere conference for geneticists studying evolution in everything from bacteria to fruit flies, weeds, worms and our favorite model organism, humans! This is a highly interactive conference: almost everyone [...]

Tags: Duffy, evolution, FOXP2, genetics, HapMap, HGDP, Imprinting, Lactose Intolerance, LCT, Malaria, SMBE

If you think mutations are just sinister events that create human flies and gigantic man-eating ants, you’re living in a ’50s B-movie. Though they sometimes cause big problems for the organisms who acquire or inherit them, mutations are actually the engine of evolution. Without them, life as we know it could not exist.
In this week’s [...]

Tags: 23andMe, genetic, LCT, MC1R, mutation, Olivia Judson