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
RFK, Jr. and the Trump administration’s political purge of scientists echoes the darkest days of the McCarthy period
Something sinister and yet vaguely familiar has been happening in American public health policy. This week’s federal court decision reversing ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr.’s unethical plan to run a Tuskegee-like syphilis experiment in West Africa to ‘prove’ hepatitis B vaccines cause neurological damage
Every generation needs to learn about what is commonly known as the Tuskegee syphilis study, which ran from 1932 to ...
Viewpoint—After the vaccine policy wrecking ball: Taking stock one year after RFK, Jr. abandoned science
This past month, my kids’ small-town school has been in crisis mode. Budget shortfalls, emergency meetings, parents scrambling to understand ...
Viewpoint: The extremist right degraded the public conversation after its massive infiltration of the internet and social media. AI is their next target
How can society police the global spread of online far-right extremism while still protecting free speech? That’s a question policymakers ...
Viewpoint: Check on scare “science”—Claims about the human health dangers of microplastics are collapsing
Since the rise of MAHA in US policy, journalists have been starting to question the findings of activist scientists, and ...
Viewpoint: Trump’s ‘fake news’ war on environmental science
President Trump, who frequently denounces accurate journalism he dislikes as “fake news,” is demanding that national parks, monuments, museums and ...
Microplastics as a blueprint for health scares: How the “panic pipeline” of activists and academics partners with tort lawyers to manufacture chemical crises
We’ve seen this fear-to-filing pipeline repeatedly in other contested controversies — most recently involving Tylenol and food additives — where ...
Nine deadly vaccine myths that RFK, Jr. and MAHA promote
In consulting rooms across America, physicians face a challenge that no medical school prepared them for. A parent arrives with ...
Sleeping for centuries: Unpacking the mystery of the survival of animals
What can plants or animals do when faced with harsh conditions? Two options for survival seem most obvious: move elsewhere ...
Understanding the evolution of individuality—Fruit flies may have an answer
As a Ph.D. student, I wanted to understand the evolution of individual differences in fruit fly behavior – the building ...
‘Consensus science’ is under attack
A growing distrust of expertise is reshaping the terrain of science in the United States. Since the pandemic, the partisan ...
Scientists take to TikTok to challenge wellness woo, vaccine denialism and climate denialism
One of Simon Clark’s most popular TikTok videos begins with him playing the part of a clueless climate contrarian. Adopting ...
Viewpoint: Wellness pseudoscience activists are rewriting U.S. health policy
For decades, wellness misinformation lived in a space that was evidence-adjacent and problematic, but containable: the “outspoken minority” spreading lies ...
How misguided federal actions are damaging the nation’s biomedical research—and how to push back
Current United States administration policies are degrading the nation’s biomedical research system, and the damage is likely to grow. Those ...
The Casey Means file: For MAHA, ‘her lack of clinical grounding isn’t a bug, it’s a feature’
Here’s what [Casey Mean] said, in rotating order, regardless of the question: root causes. Real food. Informed consent. Have a ...
Viewpoint: America’s reproductive health safety net is fraying as political wars escalate
In late October, Maine Family Planning announced three rural clinics in northern Maine would close by month’s end. These primary ...
Viewpoint: The Casey Means hustle—Wellness woo opportunism dressed up as medical wisdom
I thought it might be a good idea to try to examine the underlying reasons why so many scientists and ...
RFK, Jr.’s CDC: Dozens of databases not reporting illnesses and deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases
On January 27, 2026, researchers from Vanderbilt University, the University of North Carolina, and Harvard Medical School published a study in the Annals ...
Viewpoint: Opposing expanding nuclear energy production—Here’s what left-wing junk science looks like
If you want to know why progress on nuclear energy was so halting during the Biden years, despite the administration’s ...
‘Why do humans have language and other animals apparently don’t?’
Why do humans have language and other animals apparently don’t? It’s one of the most enduring questions in the study ...
49ers injury conspiracy theory: Power-station radiation isn’t to blame, but anti-technology hysteria reigns
As a San Francisco 49ers fan since I was a child, it was painful to watch the Seattle Seahawks run ...
Tracking U.S. vaccine policy—Mid-February 2026
Between federal lawsuits, sweeping schedule changes, and states mobilizing their own legal challenges, the last few weeks have been a ...
FDA Moderna mRNA review flip-flop: A sledgehammer to vaccine—and a gift to anti-vaccine activists
The FDA’s sudden thaw with Moderna doesn’t put an mRNA flu shot on the doorstep of pharmacies; it pushes the ...
Viewpoint: As gun laws weaken, deaths rise sharply
The numbers upend a familiar narrative. While stronger gun laws are linked to fewer firearm deaths overall, the real story ...
Trump-RFK Jr.’s FDA in science freefall: The leucovorin autism “cure” fiasco is one of many
The Food and Drug Administration is looking less and less like a regulator than a circus, with fresh, disconcerting episodes ...
Viewpoint—Vaccine rejectionists are trying to scare women that they are being used as ‘guinea pigs’
We thought we'd answer a question that came in response to our series, Fun Size Science, in which Unbiased Science's ...
What happens to large pieces of plastic as it breaks down in the ocean?
Think of ocean plastic and you may picture bottles and bags bobbing on the waves, slowly drifting out to sea ...
