Most fat stores energy; the body's brown fat does the opposite. Unlike the white fat that accumulates just under our skin, brown fat burns calories and glucose to generate heat. Formally known as brown adipose tissue,

A new study finds that bacteria can actively block the transfer of beneficial genes to neighboring cells, using specialized proteins to specifically destroy shared DNA before it spreads. This challenges the long-held view that bacteria freely exchange genetic material and reveals a more competitive system in which microbes tightly control who gets access to valuable traits,

The work demonstrates the power of ancient DNA to illuminate human biology and medicine in addition to history. A massive study of ancient DNA from nearly 16,000 people across more than 10,000 years in West Eurasia reveals that natural selection has shaped modern human genomes far more than previously thought.

A groundbreaking DNA study has traced genetic links between descendants of the Croatan and Lumbee tribes and England’s lost Roanoke colonists, offering the first scientific evidence for the long-held theory that survivors assimilated with Native communities. Researchers combined genetic genealogy, archival records, and oral histories to confirm European paternal lines within Native American ...

In a first-of-its-kind finding, researchers at University of Iowa Health Care discovered that specific genetic sequences have an outsized impact on humans' language abilities and that these sequences evolved before humans and Neanderthals diverged.

Scientists now recognize that spontaneous DNA errors, which we acquire in early development all the way until our last breath, can drive several ailments such as heart disease, autoimmunity, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer. These errors could even be the missing piece in explaining the universal phenomenon of aging.

For 32 years, Tanya Frazier's suspected killer went unidentified — even as his DNA sat in the system designed to catch him. KING 5 Investigators found out why.

Ancient DNA analysis has confirmed that a young boy and a teenage girl buried together in a 1,400-year-old Anglo-Saxon grave in Cherington, Gloucestershire, were brother and sister, and that they almost certainly died at the same time from a fast-acting infectious disease.

Scientists have just discovered an entirely new way that DNA can be synthesized. The business of constructing DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid, to give it its full name) usually requires a template that builder proteins called enzymes can work from.