The laws of inheritance are quite unknown,” Charles Darwin acknowledged in 1859. The discovery of DNA’s shape altered how we ...

In human cells, there are about 20,000 genes on a two-meter DNA strand—finely coiled up in a nucleus about 10 micrometers in diameter. By comparison, this corresponds to a 40-kilometer thread packed ...

Much the way the caps on the ends of a shoelace prevent it from fraying, telomeres - regions of repetitive DNA sequences and a protein structure - protect the tips of chromosomes from damage. Every ...