What makes every person unique? Part of the answer is in our genes. A gene is a basic unit of heredity, the means by which traits get passed from one generation to the next, and genetics is the study ...

When my middle school class read Tuck Everlasting, the novel about a girl who befriends a family who drank from a magical stream and gained eternal life, I was conflicted. The moral of the story was ...

Dr. Conley is the author of “The Social Genome: The New Science of Nature and Nurture.” Since Francis Galton coined the phrase “nature versus nurture” 150 years ago, the debate about what makes us who ...

How much do your genes determine how long you'll live? It's a question that fascinates us, and one that's been debated for decades.

Both nature (genetics) and nurture (environment) play a role in shaping who we are, and their interaction is often the most influential factor in a person's development. Mental health can be ...

Why do some people live to 100 while their sibling dies decades earlier? Is it luck, lifestyle, or something written into their DNA? Relative to many other species, humans are particularly long-lived, ...

An individual’s genetics and their environment both shape their personality. However, opinions differ on the degree to which each of these factors influences personality, and how they contribute to ...

In two new studies on 28,000 individuals, researchers can show that genetic variants in 11 regions of the human genome have a clear influence on which bacteria are in the gut and what they do there.

Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Sofie Salama. Photos by Carolyn Lagattuta A new award from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) will support a team of ...