DNA science has helped solve criminal cases for decades. But increasingly, investigative genetic genealogy — which was first used for cold cases — is helping to solve active cases as well.

Ancient DNA from a Stone Age burial site in Sweden shows that families 5,500 years ago were more complex than expected. Many individuals buried together were not immediate family, but second- or third ...

Human intelligence wasn’t a cosmic evolutionary fluke, some scientists say. The case against cosmic loneliness is growing.

How does our DNA store the massive amount of information needed to build a human being? And what happens when it's stored incorrectly? Jesse Dixon, MD, Ph.D., has spent years studying the way this ...

CeCe Moore said police could use investigative genetic genealogy to track down the suspect responsible for Guthrie's ...

Two naturally mummified individuals buried roughly 7,000 years ago in a Libyan rock shelter have yielded ancient genomes that reveal a previously unknown, long-isolated North African lineage. The ...

In the central Sahara, where sand now buries ancient lakes, scientists have pulled genetic material from 7,000-year-old mummified women and found DNA that does not match any living population. The ...

His 1968 book, “Chariots of the Gods,” sold hundreds of thousands of copies, but one critic called it a “warped parody of reasoning.” By Mike Peed Erich von Däniken, the best-selling Swiss author and ...

Researchers have reconstructed ancient herpesvirus genomes from Iron Age and medieval Europeans, revealing that HHV-6 has been infecting humans for at least 2,500 years. Some people inherited the ...

How much of our genome really matters? Some argue that because most of our DNA is active, it must be doing something important. Others say even random DNA would be highly active. This has now been put ...

When ET phones home, it could be his last call. Contrary to sci-fi movie depictions, our first contact might not be with a super advanced alien civilization at the height of power. Rather, Ivy League ...

One of the most detailed 3D maps of how the human chromosomes are organized and folded within a cell's nucleus is published in Nature. Chromosomes are thread-like structures that carry a cell's ...