What Is CRISPR? A Bacterial Immune System That Became a Gene Editor

Blue cells under a microscope

In 1987 a Japanese researcher named Yoshizumi Ishino was sequencing a gene in E. coli when he found a strange pattern: a short sequence repeated five times, with unrelated stretches of DNA in between. Nobody knew what it did. It turned out to be part of a bacterial immune system, and roughly 25 years later … Read more

What Is mRNA Technology? The Delivery Problem Took 30 Years to Solve

DNA strand in a molecular biology 3d render

The idea behind mRNA medicine is older than most of the people reading about it. Researchers first got mRNA into cells to make a protein in 1978; the first successful animal experiments came in 1990; the first approved drug arrived in 2020. So what is mrna technology, if the concept is more than forty years … Read more

James Webb Telescope Discoveries: What Is Confirmed and What Is Still Argued

Cartoon Copernicus with a telescope

Webb launched on 25 December 2021 and released its first full-colour science images on 12 July 2022. In the years since, it has produced a steady stream of results — some of which have been reported far more confidently than the evidence supports. This is a breakdown of james webb telescope discoveries sorted by how … Read more