A surprising number of microbes use alternate genetic codes, different from the standard genetic code that governs the large majority of life. A census of these "recoded" genomes was recently reported ...

LA JOLLA, CA—One of modern biologists’ most ambitious goals is to learn how to expand or otherwise modify the genetic code of life on Earth, in order to make new, artificial life forms. Part of the ...

For most of the history of life on Earth, genetic information has been carried in a code that specifies just 20 amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, which do most of the heavy ...

Cells working with an expanded genetic code could make more diverse medicines. A new study shows scientists are within striking distance. One of modern biologists' most ambitious goals is to learn how ...

Genes are the building blocks of life, and the genetic code provides the instructions for the complex processes that make organisms function. But how and why did it come to be the way it is? Subscribe ...

Nobel laureate Har Gobind Khorana's groundbreaking work on the genetic code, deciphering how DNA sequences translate to ...

For Save the Koala Day, learn how conservation geneticist Rebecca Johnson’s work helps protect these iconic marsupials Jack Tamisiea Smithsonian chief scientist Rebecca Johnson snaps a selfie with one ...