Genetics

NEW YORK -- A prominent genetics expert from Harvard Medical School wants to make one thing perfectly clear: He is NOT looking for a woman to bear a Neanderthal baby. Not even an adventurous one.

LOGAN — Ready for an amazing spider-related sequel? Well, you’ll have to wait until July to see Spider-Man in theaters, but two Utah State University faculty members already have welcomed two sets of cloned spider goat twins.

Spider goats, as scientists informally call them, are goats that have been modified as embryos to introduce a spider gene that allows the female goats to produce a milk containing spider silk. The strong silk substance, not in web form, is then isolated and purified before use.

The 3,000 students at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research at Weber State University have studied everything they need to know to run the world when they take over, and that’s good.

Judging by the results, the current operators — that’s us — are working blind.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday threw out a lower court ruling allowing human genes to be patented, a topic of enormous interest to cancer researchers, patients and drug makers.

BILLINGS, Mont. -- Sixty-four bison from Yellowstone National Park were due to arrive at northeast Montana's Fort Peck Reservation on Monday, under a long-stalled relocation initiative meant to repopulate parts of the West with the iconic, genetically pure animals.

LAYTON -- A local physician says there is an immune deficiency disorder that may predispose some people to meningeal infections, especially the severe bacterial type like the one that claimed the life of a Syracuse boy in January.

NEW YORK — George Eberhardt turned 107 last month, and scientists would love to know how he and other older folks like him made it that far. So he’s going to hand over some of his DNA.