New GM technology that selects only female chicks to hatch could improve animal welfare - but what might be the real cost?
All in Developmental genetics
Why Y bye-bye? Is the Y chromosome disappearing and will men really go extinct?
The Y chromosome is shrinking - but this doesn’t mean that males will vanish altogether. For the Amami spiny rat, this has already happened - so how do they cope?
Hot stuff: how climate change is affecting sex ratios
For species whose sex is influenced by temperature, like turtles and toads, climate change could cause a catastrophic shift in the balance of males to females.
Rachel Freathy: Birthweight and diabetes risk
Dr Rachel Freathy and her team at the University of Exeter are looking at the correlation between birthweight and the risk of developing diabetes later in life.
Courtney Hanna: How to make a placenta
Dr Courtney Hanna and her team at the University of Cambridge are investigating the epigenetic changes that influence the growth and development of the placenta - a vital but poorly understood organ.
Dave Grattan: Prolactin, the hormone that does everything
Professor Dave Grattan and his team at the University of Otago are investigating the multifaceted role of the hormone prolactin in pregnancy.
Rosa Cheesman: From Mendelian inheritance to sociogenomics
Dr Rosa Cheesman from the University of Oslo explains how genetics can help us understand complex human traits and behaviours such as education
Kevin Mitchell: how much of our personality is innate?
Where does our personality come from? Obviously our brains have a lot to do with it, but is it genetic differences in our brains that lead to differences in how we think? Is it all in our upbringing and childhood experiences? Or is it something else? To tackle this question, we sit down with Kevin Mitchell, an Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin and author of the book Innate: How the wiring of our brains shapes who we are.
Whorls apart: the genetics of fingerprints
We hear a lot about genetic fingerprinting, but what about the genetics of fingerprints? Dr Sally Le Page looks at the evolution of fingerprints in primates and koalas, why we have them, and what they can tell us about life before we were born.
The wobble of life
Presenter Dr Kat Arney explores how Professor Ben Lehner’s worm-breaking research has changed our understanding of the importance of randomness in genetics. How can we explain differences between individuals with identical nature and nurture? Perhaps there’s another factor involved; the ‘wobble’...
The monkey in the mirror
Dr Kat Arney is looking at the monkey in the mirror, investigating how flipped genetic switches and long-dead viruses make all the difference between our human faces and those of our closest primate relatives.
Does cancer care about sex?
Presenter Kat Arney tells the story of how biomathematician Kristin Swanson discovered that cancer cells with XX chromosomes behave differently to cancer cells with XY chromosomes.
Sam Behjati: The placenta is a genetic dumpster fire
Sam and his colleagues have discovered that the placenta is packed with genetic mutations, many of which are found in cancer.
Ros John: Why the placenta is the battleground between mum and dad
Ros’s research focuses on understanding maternal mental health, imprinted genes and the role of the placenta during pregnancy and even beyond.
Dianne Newbury: Studying speech and language development on Robinson Crusoe Island
Dianne Newbury is studying the Robinson Crusoe Islanders to understand how genetic variations contribute to speech and language problems.
The story of Sonic Hedgehog
From six-toed cats to cyclops lambs, we explore the fascinating story and science behind the Sonic Hedgehog gene.
The organiser: Hilde Mangold
We explore the life and work of Hilde Mangold, whose work in developmental genetics led to the discovery of the Spemann-Mangold organiser.
“A woman and a Jew? Forget it!”: The story of Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch
We explore the life of Salome Gluecksohn, a woman and a Jew in early 20th century Germany whose experiments with mice sparked a new field in science: developmental genetics.
Meet your inner fish
Human and fish embryos share striking similarities thanks to our shared evolutionary origins - it’s time to meet Tiktaalik, the ancient ancestor of your inner fish.
Back to the womb - fish, fraud and dodgy embryology
German zoologist Ernst Haeckel had a flair for illustration, creating incredibly detailed and widely shared scientific images. But do his famous embryo drawings really show the true picture of early development?