dna

NASA has discovered a bacteria that can use arsenic -- which is toxic to most forms of life -- as a building block of its DNA. Scientists say the discovery may broaden our definition of what constitutes life and may revolutionize how we search for life beyond Earth.

King Tut had a pyramid to keep his memory alive, today for the relatively low, low price of $399, immortality seekers can store one gigabyte of digital memories and a DNA sample in a nuclear bomb-proof vault in Gstaad, Switzerland. Forever. "Don't just disappear," cautions the Swiss DNA Bank's...

Would you pay $79.99 to find out whether Bowser was part-Schnauzer? Or any other kind of breed? A company at the recent NYC Pet Show was hawking its doggie DNA test. You take a cheek swab of your mutt and mail the sample back to the lab. Three weeks later you have three generations of your hound's...

Earlier this week, Walgreens announced with great fanfare that it was selling a controversial over-the-counter genetics test. The drug store chain quickly changed its mind after the Food and Drug Administration objected, ending the bewildering episode as quickly as it started. Testing your own DNA...

Whatever you do, don't call it easy money. Newly freed prisoners in Texas are being compensated richly for their travails, thanks to a new law in the state, which leads the nation in freeing wrongly-convicted inmates. Under the new law, which took effect this week, Texas exonerees will receive...

Ever since early 2001, it seems that our culture has prided itself on rewarding failure (Mission Accomplished, anyone?). This idea seems alive and well after reading Barron's [subscription required] list of the 30 most respected CEOs, which appears to have been selected through a vote by stock...

Swiss pharma giant Roche has reached an agreement with Genentech (DNA) to acquire at $95 a share the other 44 percent of the company that Roche doesn't already own. But Genentech -- which had all the features of a Technology Leader (about which I wrote in my book of that name and posted here) --...

Genentech (DNA) -- Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche said Thursday it has agreed to buy Genentech for $46.8 billion. Genentech's board approved and recommended the deal, which offers $95 per share for the 44 percent of Genentech that Roche Holding AG doesn't already own. The combined company would...

Roche will finally buy Genentech (DNA) after months of fighting over a price for the acquisition. According to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), "Swiss drug maker Roche Holding AG said Thursday it has agreed with Genentech Inc. to buy the 44 percent of the U.S. biotech company that...

A pair of high school kids did a DNA-barcode test on New York City sushi and found that one-quarter of the fish they tested was really a cheaper species than what the seller said. The kids, Kate Stoeckle and Louisa Strauss, got some help from Eugene Wong, a graduate student at the University of...