Synthetic biology is poised to tackle a range of challenges, from cleaning up pollutants with designer bacteria to the creation of bespoke gene therapies. But the transition from the laboratory to ...

Bacteria, the earliest life on Earth, evolved around 4 billion years ago, with the first fossilized traces dating back 3.5 billion years to 3.7 billion years. But fossils alone only hint at the past.

Some genetic disorders—such as cystic fibrosis, hemophilia and Tay Sachs disease—involve many mutations in a person's genome, often with enough variation that even two individuals who share the same ...