Stories by Sally Lehrman

Tuberculosis seems to be evolving in unexpected ways that outsmart humans

Hailed as a potential alternative to embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) raise their own ethical dilemmas

A geneticist ordained as a Dominican priest, Francisco J. Ayala sees no conflict between Darwinism and faith. Convincing most of the American public of that remains the challenge

Like many stem cell pioneers, Ian Wilmut, the creator of Dolly the sheep, has jumped to an alternative approach. Is this the beginning of the end for embryonic cloning?

The creator of Dolly the sheep has ended his focus on somatic cell nuclear transfer, or cloning, in favor of another approach to create stem cells

Doubts about whether commercial DNA scans improve health

Thinking about patients as ongoing products of evolution

Babies born with mixed sex organs often get immediate surgery. New genetic studies, Eric Vilain says, should force a rethinking about sex assignment and gender identity.

Eric Vilain discusses the biology and politics of mixed-sex individuals, arguing that terms such as "hermaphrodite" and "intersex" are vague and hurtful.

Mobile phones target the world's nonreading poor

Families become suspects as rules on dna matches relax

International commission forges ahead to identify genocide victims

Mahzarin Banaji can show how we connect "good" and "bad" with biased attitudes we hold, even if we say we don't. Especially when we say we don't

Reconnecting African-Americans to an ancestral past

Last fall Robert Klein got Californians to vote for embryonic stem cell work. That was a piece of cake compared with getting the resulting research agency off the ground

The modern world exists because of science, so Kavli hopes his funding of astrophysics, brain research and nanoscience will pave the way to the future

Fear of reinforcing negative stereotypes, Claude Steele finds, hampers the ability to succeed. The idea is now central in affirmative action and job discrimination fights

Gene searches move from alcoholism to intoxication

Science feels the heat from the politics of morality

Irving Weissman directs a new institute dedicated to the cloning of human embryonic stem cells. Just don't call it cloning

A plan to get scientists involved in U.S. foreign policy

There's hardly any difference in the DNA of human races. That doesn't mean, argues sociologist Troy Duster, that genomics research can ignore the concept