The Human Dynasty

Runners, listen up: If your body is telling you that your pace feels a little too fast or a little too slow, it may be right. A new study shows that the efficiency of human running varies with speed and that each individual has an optimal pace at which he or she can cover the greatest distance with the least effort. Such efficient locomotion probably provided our ancestors with an advantage for hunting and gathering food.

(Penn State) Hundreds of natural-selection studies could have made incorrect conclusions because several statistical methods commonly used by biologists to detect natural selection at the molecular level tend to produce incorrect results, according to new research led by a biologist at Penn State University. The study suggests that, for a more realistic picture of natural selection, biologists should pair experimental data with their statistical data, whenever possible.

Members of the public are asked to look for banded snails and report their findings for a major evolutionary study.

A survey has revealed a disappointing level of knowledge regarding the life and works of one of Britain’s best-known scientists, Charles Darwin.

Researchers have now found all the genes the determine the dosage of the blood-thinning drug warfarin.

1 in 2 Brits with ancestors in collection, including J.K. Rowling, David Beckham and Patsy Kensit

Scientists have uncovered a gene control mechanism that guides the development and differentiation of epidermal skin stem cells in mouse embryos, and shown that this mechanism tempers the development of the skin barrier. The findings provide insights that could lead to therapeutic advance in treating prematurely born infants who have not yet fully formed the skin.

Omega-3 fatty acids appear protective against advanced prostate cancer, and this effect may be modified by a genetic variant in the COX-2 gene, according to a report in Clinical Cancer Research.

Researchers have developed an assay that may be used to help identify new genes that can predict a predisposition to cancer.

If our reporter’s DNA is vulnerable, then so is yours. New Scientist reports on an alarming new threat to genetic privacy