Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. A nurse practitioner administers COVID-19 tests in the parking lot at Brockton High School in Brockton, Mass., on Aug. 13, 2020. A nurse practitioner administers ...

Explore 40 years of PCR history, from Kary Mullis’s invention story to the rise of digital PCR and how it revolutionized diagnostics and molecular biology.

One is widespread but has key shortages across its supply chain. One remains questionably reliable and is only helpful after the fact. And one is still early in development – but could speed up and ...

Every American traveling abroad needs to take an antigen test to return to the United States. But the start of the trip is often even more cumbersome, as many other countries (nearly every one I have ...

(CNN) -- One is widespread but has key shortages across its supply chain. One remains questionably reliable and is only helpful after the fact. And one is still early in development -- but could speed ...

Testing for the coronavirus has been very much in the news. The first and most urgent focus is on increasing access to tests to diagnose people with current infections. But now other tests are ...

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a fundamental molecular biology tool that scientists use to amplify and analyze genetic material, such as DNA and RNA. PCR involves the enzymatic amplification of ...

With laboratory methods and diagnostics advancing apace, Francesca Lake considers whether PCR is likely to retain its crown as an essential lab method, or whether it could be replaced and consigned to ...