Human 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
GLP podcast: Africa needs ‘regenerative’ farming, activists say; Time to ban menthol cigarettes? Trump wrong to leave World Health Organization?
Some public health experts claim that banning menthol cigarettes will save hundreds of thousands of lives. Are they right, or ...
Are you a fervent reader? It’s likely genetic
The number of people who read for fun appears to be steadily dropping. Fifty percent of UK adults say they ...
What happens when anti-vax ideology moves from the fringe to the halls of power? Will measles just be the opening act?
ith the presumptive ascension of RFK Jr. to Health and Social Services Secretary bringing along his history of anti-vax activities, ...
Viewpoint: The ‘post genomic era’ reveals nothing less than a new biology. We just don’t know how to talk about it
You could be forgiven for thinking that the turn of the millennium was a golden age for the life sciences ...
Viewpoint: New York Times cancels unorthodox columnist Pamela Paul known for challenging ideological orthodoxy
I am pretty sure I predicted this, though I’m not going to trawl back through my posts to see for ...
Breakthrough technologies: Global poll highlights embrace of AI in health care, gene editing and cell based meat, although optimism of U.S. respondents lags
Scientific advances will only succeed if people are willing to embrace them. Leaps by Bayer (the company’s impact investment arm) ...
Dietary restriction or good genes—Which has a greater impact on lifespan?
As people who research ageing like to quip: the best thing you can do to increase how long you live ...
GLP podcast: Trump pardons ‘drug kingpin’; Downside of ‘do your own research’; IVF clinic swaps embryos
Ross Ulbricht was poised to spend the rest of his life in prison for running an illicit online drug market ...
Readers beware: AI vaccums up information from the internet and spews it out
If you have used Google lately and been lucky – or unlucky – enough to encounter an answer to your ...
Viewpoint: “The sheer number of vaccines pumped into kids today is alarming’—Why activist claims are wrong and dangerous
This is not a new refrain, especially for those of us who work in infectious disease biomedical research, but a ...
The real causes for the ‘surge’ in austim diagnoses—Facts that RFK. Jr. and other vaccine rejectionists continue to get wrong
A change in how we diagnose and report autism and not vaccines, glyphosate or chemtrails is the prime mover as ...
Viewpoint: Here is why Trump’s announced plan to stop US contributions to the World Health Organization will kill people
I just spent the past 12 hours traveling from Delhi to Kaziranga National Park in Assam, India, and during our ...
CIA’s cautious (and dubious) embrace of COVID-19 lab leak theory is likely to spur more controversy, not end it
The calamitous global outbreak of COVID-19 has sparked intense scrutiny of its origins. One school of thought holds that the ...
Viewpoint: Europe is rushing to regulate microplastics and activists are clamoring for the U.S. to follow suit. Good science or environmental folly?
When regulating toxic substances, we first identify a risk (aim), and then, and only then, take action to reduce that ...
Your cells are dying. All the time.
Billions of cells die in your body every day. Some go out with a bang, others with a whimper. They ...
Why ‘Do your own research’ and ‘Believe in Science’ encourage science illiteracy
During the pandemic, we turned to our leaders for updates on the rapidly worsening, unprecedented situation. As days turned to ...
What is ‘genetic conflict’ and how does it shape human psychology?
As a species, humans like to think that we are fully in control of our decisions and behavior. But just ...
GLP podcast: Our food is poisoning us? Here are the facts about red dye, pesticides and processing
With a few thumb taps on a smart phone, we can order an almost limitless selection of foods and have ...
Antibiotic resistance may be reversible. Here’s how
Peering through his microscope in 1910, Franco-Canadian microbiologist Félix d'Hérelle noticed some “clear spots” in his bacterial cultures, an anomaly ...
How a brain-threatening parasite could soon be programed to deliver life-saving drugs
Parasites take an enormous toll on human and veterinary health. But researchers may have found a way for patients with brain ...
‘You are a stain on the universe. Please die. Please’: A 14-year old took AI seriously. Who is responsible?
Demonic forces which lured unsuspecting innocents to their deaths were once the subject of myth. No longer. And while we ...
Viewpoint: ‘Chemical cocktail’ speculation is homeopathic hysteria
Blood samples of pregnant women have detectable levels of chemicals and that 'chemical cocktail' may pose [a] "neurotoxic risk", according ...
Viewpoint: DEI is infecting America’s science and medical establishment
Dr. H. Holden Thorp, the editor-in-chief of the prestigious journal Science since 2019, described on Substack a discussion that occurred during [a] ...
Early humans are one of the few animals of that era that did not migrate when the climate cooled
Humans seem to have ... adapted to the last ice age in similar ways to wolves and bears, according to ...
Viewpoint: Here’s why RFK, Jr.’s proposal to backburn infectious disease over chronic disease is bad science and public policy
RFK Jr. is dead wrong about “pausing infectious disease research” to focus on chronic diseases You think I’m joking, right? ...
Viewpoint: What is ‘Spatula-Gate’? Or how reckless, chemophobic media and environmentalists bungled the science of plastics yet again
For months, the media indulged in a frenzy of fearmongering, plastering headlines about toxic flame retardants supposedly hiding in your ...
How close are we to the avian flu outbreak escalating into a pandemic?
After at least documented 66 cases of humans infected with bird flu – which is surely an undercount -- the ...
