Stories by Ewen Callaway

Long-awaited results of a three-person IVF technique suggest that mitochondrial donation can prevent babies from inheriting diseases caused by mutant mitochondria

Molecules from the 20-million-year-old teeth of a rhino relative are among the oldest ever sequenced, opening tantalizing possibilities to scientists

Forty years after the first effort to extract mummy DNA, researchers have finally generated a full genome sequence from an ancient Egyptian, who lived when the earliest pyramids were built

Phoenician civilization spread its culture and alphabet across the Mediterranean but not, evidently, its DNA

After 150,000 articles and 17 million genome sequences, what science has taught us about SARS-CoV-2

Roughly 8,000-year-old remains unearthed from present-day Tunisia held a surprise: European hunter-gatherer ancestry

While many researchers celebrated this year’s chemistry and physics prizes, others were disappointed by the focus on computational methods

Vittrup Man, who was bludgeoned to death in a Danish bog, was a Scandinavian wanderer, according to new research

Ancient DNA recovered from Brazilian remains shows that syphilis and other treponemal diseases originated some 10,000 years earlier than previously thought

Researchers have doubted how useful AI protein-structure tool AlphaFold will be in discovering medicines—now they are learning how to deploy it effectively

Researchers have adapted the AI network to search for genetic changes linked to ill health

The decision to send hominin bones on a commercial spaceflight has raised eyebrows among paleontologists

Research is under way to determine whether the mutation-laden lineage BA.2.86 is nothing to worry about — or has the potential to spread globally

The U.K.’s fertility regulator reveals that at least one child has been born using mitochondrial replacement therapy, but the procedure’s effectiveness remains to be seen

Resins used by ancient Egyptians to prepare bodies for the afterlife are found in vessels in a 2,500-year-old workshop

Controversy surrounding a study that involved modifying SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, has prompted researchers to call for better guidance from funders

Ancient DNA from closely related individuals offers fresh insight into Neanderthals’ lives and social structures

A landmark study is the first major effort to quantify how lactose tolerance developed

When SARS-CoV-2 lingers in the body, it accumulates many of the same mutations seen in the most dangerous global variants. What can scientists do with this knowledge? 

A genetic change that evolved from ancient wolves can help make dogs giant or small

The rapid spread of new variants such as Omicron offers clues to how SARS-CoV-2 is adapting and how the pandemic will play out over the next several months

The rapid spread of new variants such as Omicron offers clues to how SARS-CoV-2 is adapting and how the pandemic will play out over the next several months

Researchers are racing to determine whether a fast-spreading coronavirus variant poses a threat to COVID vaccines’ effectiveness

Partial SARS-CoV-2 sequences from early outbreaks in Wuhan were removed from a U.S. government database by the scientists who deposited them