A British Nigerian couple--Ben and Angela Ihegboro--is not aware of any fair-skinned ancestors on either side of their families. Yet they gave birth to a blue-eyed, blond-haired, and fair-skinned baby girl. As the mother herself exclaimed, "What on earth happened here?"

In the tiny world of the cell, segments of DNA called transposons copy and reinsert themselves into the DNA. They eventually produce large repetitive sequences that have for many years been considered useless "junk" or remnants of ancient viral infections. But a new study has uncovered an important function for transposons.

Genes are portions of DNA that contain just the right codes to specify proteins, which make everything in cells work. But how does the cell know which protein should be manufactured, how often, how much, or how fast? If it doesn't get these right, then cellular disaster results.

In May 2010, researchers announced the completion of a draft sequence for the Neandertal genome. Provocative images of ape-like humans adorned newspaper and magazine articles, playing up the evolutionary story that humans descended from chimpanzee-like creatures.

A hundred and fifty years ago, most biologists believed that cells were "simple" blobs of protoplasm. This made Darwinian evolution easier to accept, since all nature would have to do to make a new creature is accidentally adjust a collection of rudimentary parts from an old one.