DNA

If you're a crayfish, North Carolina is where it's at. In general, the state is among the most biologically-diverse for several reasons. Additionally, there are a couple of thoughts as to why we live in the Mudbug Mecca. In a way, crayfish are islands unto themselves. Most species carry with them Branchiobdellida, a species of worm that live life on the clawed critter.

You are you because of a unique combination of your parents' genes, coded into the strands of DNA molecules, coiled tightly around an “X-shaped” structure. This is a chromosome, and you have 23 pairs of them, deep down in the nucleus of all 37 trillion cells in your body.Dr. Beth Sullivan, Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University, studies chromosome rearrangements in her lab and how they may cause disease.

Lurking in the Eastern forests, from Mississippi to Maine, is a living hybrid. With the combined genetics of three distinct animals, it's a survivor, and a better predator. How is this animal a lot like you and me?

You are a paleontologist on expedition hunting dinosaur fossils. For all your efforts, you've unearthed just a few bone fragments. Back at the lab, you and your team determine that, based on their shape and size, you're looking at a colossal waste of time and resources. But a new tool is emerging which allows us to use dinosaur DNA to better understand prehistoric evolutionary trees. It may also help to find life on Mars, or treat human diseases.

With great complexity, we manufacture things like jet airplanes, interplanetary probes, medical tools, and microprocessors. We build with a top-down approach, starting with a big picture concept which we then design and assemble in pieces. Duke University professor of computer sciences, Dr. John Reif, notes that nature works from the bottom up to assemble complex structures in three dimensions. He and his lab are working on that.

A Duke University scientist is cracking the mystery of microcephaly. How might this help in Zika research?

Do your ears stick out? What color are your eyes? Who are you? You are you because of a unique combination of your parents' genes, coded into the strands…

What is keeping a genetically altered super-villain bug from escaping Duke University's synthetic biology labs, and destroying humanity Holloywood-style? A Duke University scientist has engineered genetically altered “swarmbots” that can only survive in a swarm of their own kind. And that's just the start of it all.