Podcast: Why do people donate kidneys to strangers? Is altruism an evolved human trait?

Podcast: Why do people donate kidneys to strangers? Is altruism an evolved human trait?

Barry Lam, Kieran Setiya | 
Penny Lane gave up months of wages and weeks of her life to have her kidney cut out and given ...
Today’s anti-vaccination protests have roots in a long-running and often lurid American ‘medical freedom movement’

Today’s anti-vaccination protests have roots in a long-running and often lurid American ‘medical freedom movement’

Rebecca Onion | 
In the 1820s and 1830s, acolytes of New Hampshire autodidact Samuel Thomson fought the imposition of medical licensure requirements, arguing ...
Treating manic depression and mental illness is the ‘final frontier’ of CRISPR gene therapy

Treating manic depression and mental illness is the ‘final frontier’ of CRISPR gene therapy

Tana Wojczuk | 
Since the 1980s, scientists have been searching for the genetic root of manic-depression, to better understand it and treat it, ...
Tune out the media noise: Vaccine mandates are mostly being embraced — and they're working

Tune out the media noise: Vaccine mandates are mostly being embraced — and they’re working

Jordan Weissman | 
Apparently some editors have decided it’s just a fine idea to blast out the tidbit that Americans are quitting their ...
‘Simple and ugly’: Reddit group named after Republican COVID denier Herman Cain grimly catalogues those who died after mocking seriousness of the coronavirus

‘Simple and ugly’: Reddit group named after Republican COVID denier Herman Cain grimly catalogues those who died after mocking seriousness of the coronavirus

Lili Loofbourow | 
HermanCainAward, one of the fastest-growing subreddits on Reddit.com, is exactly what it sounds like: an archive of those who have ...
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How do religious COVID vaccine exemptions work — and how do you prevent people from abusing them?

Molly Olmstead | 
The idea of a religious exemption as a concept has a long and complicated history in the U.S., but it ...
Musician Nicki Minaj hesitates to get a COVID vaccine because it ‘caused a friend of a friend to become impotent’. Let’s review the evidence

Musician Nicki Minaj hesitates to get a COVID vaccine because it ‘caused a friend of a friend to become impotent’. Let’s review the evidence

Aymann Ismail | 
Nicki Minaj turned a lot of heads [September 13] when she told her 22 million followers on Twitter that she ...
‘Last and only hope’: With global banana crop under siege from fungal disease, CRISPR may be only remaining solution

‘Last and only hope’: With global banana crop under siege from fungal disease, CRISPR may be only remaining solution

Jacquelyn Turner | 
The banana as we know it is in trouble. Emerging reports suggest the fruit’s deadliest disease has been spotted in ...
Brains make the difference: Here's the root of human self-reflection and self awareness

Brains make the difference: Here’s the root of human self-reflection and self awareness

Stephen Fleming | 
Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from Know Thyself: The Science of Self-Awareness by Stephen M. Fleming. What is it ...
‘Stop conflating all biotechnology with genetic engineering’: The case for more refined USDA regulations

‘Stop conflating all biotechnology with genetic engineering’: The case for more refined USDA regulations

Sarah Garland | 
Policymakers had known for years that the U.S. regulation of crop biotechnology was out of date, and by 2016, discussions ...
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Promises and pitfalls of treating aging like a disease

Joelle Renstrom | 
Over the years, the movement to classify aging as a disease has gained momentum not only from longevity enthusiasts but ...
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Viewpoint: China’s coronavirus is getting all the attention, but this year’s flu season is more frightening

Matthew Davis | 
What we appear to be having this year is a flu-the-trickster season. And while that new coronavirus is getting a lot of attention, ...
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Was Darwin wrong about ‘survival of the fittest’? Collaboration may be just as natural as competition

John Favini | 
To put it simply, we have let Darwinism set the horizon of possibility for human behavior. Competition has become a ...
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‘Genome doping’: Gene-edited babies could change the world of athletics

With the taboo on human gene editing in the process of being shattered, children whose genomes have been modified before ...
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Accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s obsession with scientists: ‘He collects beautiful minds’

Daniel Engber | 
As the New York Times reported [July 31], [Jeffrey] Epstein’s “passion for cutting-edge science” at times verged into eugenics. Multiple ...
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‘The numbers’ tell us that anti-vaxxers may not be to blame for recent measles outbreaks

Daniel Engber | 
On June 5, the number of measles cases in the U.S. this year passed 1,000, a milestone the country last ...
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Viewpoint: ‘Astrology-style answers’ show the darker side of consumer genetic tests

Jane Hu | 
[T]he same thing that drives some people toward astrology drives others toward mail-in test kits: People want to learn more ...
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Podcast: Is the ‘bliss gene’ real?

Maria Konnikova, Mike Pesca | 
In the interview, Maria Konnikova is back for another round of “Is That Bullshit?” Because Mike experiences less anxiety than ...
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‘Crisis-level precautions’: How hospitals fight new era of superbugs

Molly Olmstead | 
[Superbug Candida auris can] survive for weeks outside a patient—on sinks and mattresses, door knobs and bedside tables. To eradicate ...
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Viewpoint: No, we don’t need a moratorium on germline gene editing

G. Owen Schaefer | 
Should researchers put the brakes on genetically engineering babies? Leading scientists and ethicists recently called for a moratorium on clinical applications of germline ...
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Fears of gene editing in the US could be stoked by Russian disinformation attacks

Jesse Kirkpatrick, Michael FLynn | 
[There’s a] risk to gene drive research that has flown under the radar. This threat combines legitimate concerns about the ...
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Should we strive to engineer better humans?

Phil Torres | 
While proposals like cognitive or moral enhancements to help create a less doomsday-prone population are quite speculative (and on occasion, ...
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Artificial intelligence could manage our health. But can we trust it?

W. Nicholson Price II | 
In May, [startup Beta Bionics] received Food and Drug Administration approval to start clinical trials on what it calls a “bionic pancreas ...
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Don’t expect ‘instantaneous eureka moment’ in search for alien life

J.P. Nelson | 
From War of the Worlds and Arrival to SETI and Stephen Hawking, both pop culture and scientists feed the expectation that the discovery of extraterrestrial life will ...
epigenetics

Viewpoint: Here’s why the controversial field of epigenetics is ‘so alluring’

Erika Hayasaki | 
I think of stories I’ve been told about my grandmother in 1945 Japan. … It feels plausible, and poetic, to ...
iq

Viewpoint: It’s time to stop ‘connecting race to intelligence’

William Saletan | 
The race-and-IQ debate is back. The latest round started a few weeks ago when Harvard geneticist David Reich wrote a ...
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Viewpoint: Population declines are a greater crisis than extinctions

Henry Grabar | 
Forget extinctions. Population decline is a much greater crisis. ... We watch for extinctions like those with the thought that, ...
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