A University of Michigan-led study of penguin genetics has concluded that the flightless aquatic birds lost three of the five basic vertebrate tastes--sweet, bitter and the savory, meaty taste known as umami--more than 20 million years ago and never regained them.

Herbert W. Virgin, MD, PhD (left), and Thad Stappenbeck, MD, PhD, have shown that mothers can pass a trait to their offspring through the DNA of bacteria. It's a firmly established fact straight from Biology 101: Traits such as eye color and height are passed from one generation to the next through the parents' DNA.