The idea was for the National Zoo to establish a captive colony of endangered Virginia big-eared bats, to shield them from a deadly epidemic and ensure that there would be survivors if the wild population were destroyed.

The gene sets of a four-member family were analyzed in research that suggested parents pass fewer gene mutations to their offspring than previously thought.

The DNA tests that revealed how the famed boy-king Tutankhamun most likely died solved another of ancient Egypt’s enduring mysteries – the fate of controversial Pharaoh Akhenaten’s mummy.