Human Genetics Features
The GLP tackles innovations in human genetics and biotechnology. We highlight the work of our own writers, as well as that of contributors from around the Web. The GLP does not take a position on genetics-related issues; any opinions expressed belong to the authors.
Categories include:
- CRISPR and gene editing
- Gene therapy
- Stem cell research
- Genetic diseases
- Synthetic biology
- Epigenetics
- Biodrugs (pharmacogenetics)
- Personal genomics
- Ancestry and evolution
- Ethics and regulations
Sweetness and bitterness: The evolutionary story of how our sense of taste evolved
The sweetness of sugar is one of life’s great pleasures. People’s love for sweet is so visceral, food companies lure ...
Genetic doppelgängers? Identical twins separated apart can be very much alike or very different. Here’s why
What do the lives of twins tell us about heritability, selfhood and the age-old debate between nature and nurture? ...
‘The single most notorious killer of humans’: What are the true origins of the 14th century Black Plague?
It’s rare that compelling clues converge to illuminate a longstanding medical mystery: the origin of the Black Death, a bubonic ...
Mask up again? As COVID cases rise, look to science and not pundits
I can’t believe we’re having this discussion in September 2023, just as the fall respiratory virus season commences, but the ...
Science vs spirituality: The case of the severed head
There’s a ghastly severed head in St Robert’s Roman Catholic church, just down the road from me in Catforth, northern ...
Viewpoint: ‘Public fixation on human extinction from AI could distract from AI’s more immediate harms’
A public fixation on extinction from AI could empower industry insiders and distract from AI’s more immediate harms ...
Viewpoint: AI is evolving too fast for existing regulatory frameworks to keep pace. Here’s a possible solution
AI is evolving too fast for existing regulatory frameworks to keep pace. Intellectual property law may hold a solution ...
GLP podcast and video: Curing deadly diseases with mRNA; COVID killed more Republicans than Democrats? WaPo promotes ‘acupuncture pseudoscience’
The same technology behind the mRNA COVID shots could also yield groundbreaking treatments for wide-ranging diseases. A new study posits ...
First synthetic human embryo to live past 14 days was made from stem cells
A Cambridge University scientist says her research lab has used stem cells to create a human embryo that developed past ...
We could use CRISPR to cure mental illness. Should we?
Would you want to be cured of a disorder that most people consider debilitating if given the opportunity? Cancer? Sure ...
Can OpenAI prevent vaccine conspiracy theories from bubbling up in ChatGPT conversations?
The chatbot has some guardrails in place to curb disinformation, but it’ll be a game of constant catch-up ...
Viewpoint: What role can and should genetics play in understanding which people might become violent and commit crimes — and putting them in jail?
Using biology to understand criminal behavior has long been controversial. Top criminology programs are pursuing it anyway ...
During the COVID pandemic, Republicans in Ohio and Florida had a higher mortality rate than Democrats
A study confined to COVID deaths in Florida and Ohio suggests that the Grim Reaper’s “excess” deaths, when stratified by ...
The ‘great sex’ debate: Technique or connection?
The unhappiest time in a sex therapist’s office is around Valentine’s Day, says Dr. Peggy Kleinplatz, a professor in the ...
Viewpoint: GOP Congressmen continue to question safety of the COVID vaccine, raising concerns of feeding vaccine hesitancy
Vaccine skeptics run the gamut from individuals with scientific credentials who nevertheless oppose public health policies from a libertarian perspective ...
Viewpoint: ‘Animal individualism’ ― Why picking and choosing which animal species should survive or die is a terrible idea
How should humans care for the beings that share the planet with us? This is one of the defining questions of ...
Viewpoint: ‘We believe we have developed the first organism that can’t be infected by any known virus’
Researchers at George Chuch’s Harvard lab have genetically engineered a bacteria, E. coli, to be totally immune to viruses ...
Viewpoint: UFOs are in fashion again. Does latest surge in sightings suggest that aliens are amongst us?
Webzine Debrief published startling claims: US government and its allies have in their possession "intact and partially intact craft of ...
What are the prospects that we might soon face another coronavirus-like viral pandemic?
There are signs of a mid-summer surge in COVID-19 cases, particularly in the Midwest and West, that have some experts ...
Ignorance of our ignorance: What causes self-deception?
Self-deception is part of the human condition, and psychologists have long studied our ignorance of our own ignorance ...
7,000+ rare diseases remain untreatable. The genetic revolution and federal research funding offers hope for cures, but vaccine hesitancy and a lack of newborn screening pose hurdles
There are an estimated 7,000 known rare diseases affecting 30 million people; for 95% of them, there are no treatment ...
Mushroom hallucinogen sales booming despite reports of serious side effects
When a hemp dispensary in this Florida city started to stock edibles with certain mushroom extracts last year, state regulators ...
Characterizations of indigenous people as ‘savages’ and ‘monkeys’ permeate pop culture
Systemic racism and sexism have permeated civilization since the rise of agriculture, when people started living in one place for a long ...
Debunking Dunning-Kruger: It’s widely believed that the less you know, the more you think you know. Does everyone think they’re better than average?
John Cleese, the British comedian, once summed up the idea of the Dunning–Kruger effect as, “If you are really, really stupid, then ...
Viewpoint: Why do some global cancer research agencies claim that using a cell phone (like drinking Diet Coke with aspartame) poses a cancer risk?
Although some people argue that cell phone usage contributes to rising brain cancer rates, analysis of the data shows no ...
Viewpoint: To mask or not to mask? That remains a hotly debated question in hospitals and other healthcare facilities — although it shouldn’t be
During the years that the COVID-19 pandemic was murderously sweeping the world, it killed about seven million — more than 1.1 ...
New wave of migration: Transgender care crackdown prompts surge in families fleeing Missouri, Florida, Texas and other states
Hal Dempsey wanted to “escape Missouri.” Arlo Dennis is “fleeing Florida.” The Tillison family “can’t stay in Texas.” ...
