Elizabeth Finkel

Zoos Victoria staff were heartbroken this week at the death of the much-loved matriarch Western Lowland Gorilla, Yuska. At 51, Yuska was one of the oldest

We know that because indigenous Papuans and Australians carry their DNA – around 4% was bequeathed by a Denisovan ancestor.

One of the largest and most rigorous clinical trials to test ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment has just published its results.

By targeting RNA with CRISPR-Cas13, scientists are creating antiviral drugs to beat viruses like SARS-CoV-2 at their own game.

Are COVID-19 vaccines experimental? Yes – to the extent that any vaccine against a new strain of virus raises new safety issues.

The COVID vaccines have rare – but serious – side effects. Based on 21 million vaccinated Australians (and 5.6 billion globally) we can base our calculation

A few weeks ago, I discovered that some of my friends – you know who you are – weren’t planning to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

Last July, for the first time, subsistence farmers in Nigeria planted a new variety of genetically modified (GM) cowpea – and it promises to bolster food

Last July, for the first time, subsistence farmers in Nigeria planted a new variety of genetically modified (GM) cowpea – and it promises to bolster food

Daniel Stefanski was a third-year medical student in 1994 when he attended a lecture that changed his life. The lecturer strode purposefully into the room, a

It began as a joke. A paleoanthropologist, a geneticist and a blood specialist were hanging around an espresso machine – and one of them wondered: how would

Researchers have identified some prime suspects in the biggest ‘who done it’ mystery in human evolution: who were the Denisovans?

At 560 million-years-old, Ediacarans are truly ancient organisms, but do palaeontologists really know what they looked like? Elizabeth Finkel reports.

In the second part of her investigation into childhood stunting, Elizabeth Finkel looks at how the term is defined.

Nearly half of Papua New Guinea’s infants are ‘stunted’. Elizabeth Finkel accompanied a team of researchers who are trying discover why. 

Did the octopus evolve its unique intelligence by playing fast and free with the genetic code? Elizabeth Finkel investigates.

In her final editor's letter, Elizabeth Finkel reflects on the end of an era at Cosmos, and the dawn of a new age.

DNA analysis pushes the date for emergence back to 4.5 billion years ago. Elizabeth Finkel reports.

Species are going extinct too fast to save them all, so conservationists are calling on family trees to help them make hard choices. Elizabeth Finkel reports.

The koala genome, the first to be read in Australia, provides clues to the survival strategy of this national icon, and will aid efforts to save it. Elizabeth Finkel reports.