The animals may help reveal the causes of brain disease in people and point the way to treatments. But researchers already are calling for new ethical guidelines.

Today’s chatbots aren’t likely to help lone actors invent a deadly pathogen, experts say. But newer models, trained in biology, may need stronger safeguards.

Scientists trained artificial intelligence on libraries of DNA and then asked the model to create recipes for viral genomes. Sixteen of them were viable, yielding new viruses.

Scientists have found smallpox viruses in the remains of people in Chile from around 500 years ago, revealing how the virus may have evolved into a global killer.

Transmissible tumors have been reported in a handful of animal species, but never before among fish. Is it possible in humans?

Following the pandemic, the federal government is spending $150 million on new technology to ensure clean indoor air. Here’s what scientists are pursuing.

The oldest known cases, discovered among hunter-gatherers in Siberian graves, contradict the theory that the disease once was mild.

Trials are beginning on several drugs that have shown promise in preliminary studies against the virus that is causing the current outbreak.

An eminent fossil hunter takes the reins at the National Academy of Sciences in a turbulent moment for American researchers.

Researchers relied on a newer gene-editing technique that may make it possible to engineer embryos, a prospect that has long alarmed bioethicists.

The Bundibugyo virus, a little known type, previously had caused just two small outbreaks. Now it’s at the center of a rapidly widening epidemic in Africa.

The types of Ebola and hantavirus worrying officials are very different from the species identified decades ago, raising new questions about how to respond.