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
How the U.S. is gearing up for a repeat “tripledemic” this fall as threats of a surge in COVID-19 cases grow
Is the United States out of the woods yet with COVID? The evidence is problematic ...
Prominent international tech-investors throw support behind vaccine-rejectionist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s campaign for Dem nomination
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the latest scion of the Kennedy clan to seek the presidency, has a ...
Synthetic human embryos made from stem cells? Research into artificial monkey embryos leads the way
In January 2017, I met Jiankui He, the now-infamous Chinese scientist who would go on to create the world’s first genome-edited ...
Dial of Destiny decoded: What does Indiana Jones get right and wrong about archaeology?
As Dr. Jones returns to the big screen, a real archaeologist acknowledges the movie franchise's shortcomings while espousing its merits ...
Unleashing the swarm: Battling the global mosquito menace and defending public health
The Greek Ministry of Health has issued a stark warning: rapidly multiplying, stealthily infiltrating and carrying a deadly payload of ...
Will science ever be able to create an artificial womb?
In the coming years, the obstacles to ectogenesis --development outside of a mother from fertilization to full-term infancy-- will be ...
Should you get COVID and flu shots together?
Over the past several years, the medical community has learned, to its dismay, that we can experience a “twindemic” of ...
Immorality, lack of empathy, anti-social behavior: The evolution of psychopathological tendencies
By one estimate, as many as 20% of business leaders have “clinically relevant levels” of psychopathic tendencies ...
Revelations from the embryo: Glimpses into the prenatal period
Two weeks after sperm fertilizes egg is a critical time in human prenatal development. Intricate waves of signals stamp cells ...
Why are infants’ earliest months such a crucial time for brain development?
New tools are helping neuroscientists investigate why early life is such a crucial time for neural development ...
Viewpoint: Genetics of COVID — Research into why some people never got the virus should explore genetic predisposition to long COVID
Genetics might explain why some people have never had COVID – but we shouldn’t be too focused on finding out ...
Viewpoint: Should you be concerned when you read that a chemical in your food has been linked to cancer? Here’s an epidemiologist’s checklist to detect over-hyped scares
During the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, epidemiology ha assumed an outsized role in the public consciousness. It was pervasive ...
Ramazzini — The backstory of the ‘independent’ Italian organization that partners with IARC, the multi-billion dollar ‘toxic predatort’ industry, and anti-chemical environmental groups
In recent years, the Bologna-based Ramazzini Institute has found the following substance or situations "linked to" or "associated with" with ...
Who bankrolled the early days of ‘race science’? And who backs that movement today?
Wickliffe Draper spent his inheritance helping to skew the science of human difference. That mission continues ...
Should I fire my therapist? AI revolution is coming to psychology
Conversational chatbots have risen in popularity recently, but when it comes to mental health, companies and users must be cautious ...
Viewpoint: Is the predicted ‘Silent Earth insect armageddon’ the inevitable result of using farm chemicals — or is it alarmist activist propaganda? Insect scientists challenge the doomsayers
For years, journalists and environmental bloggers have been churning out story after story claiming that insects are vanishing, in the ...
Most animals are born to walk. Why are humans so helpless at birth?
Big brains and narrow hips were long blamed for the relative helplessness of human babies at birth. But the energy ...
Luxurious, sustainable fragrances: Gucci develops perfume made from carbon monoxide waste from metal factories
What if microbes could transform the pollution and stench of industrial waste into luxurious, sustainable fragrance? ...
Magnetic brain stimulation: Patients with treatment-resistant depression may benefit from this noninvasive therapy
Patients suffering with hard-to-treat depression may get relief from noninvasive magnetic brain stimulation ...
If life legally begins at conception, can fetuses be employees?
How could a fetus be a person if abortion is legal? But now that abortion rights are no longer federally ...
RSV vaccine breakthrough prevents respiratory infections that pose serious hazards to older adults
It is not every day that drug development results in a breakthrough with the potential to eliminate an often serious ...
Pollution changes the brain: People who breathe polluted air may be at higher risk of anxiety and depression
People who breathe polluted air experience changes within the brain regions that control emotions, and as a result, they may ...
Viewpoint: Could oil and gas companies transform themselves from carbon-polluting villains to climate healers?
Oil and gas companies are seen as climate villains. Truth is, we’ll need their expertise to make green hydrogen a ...
Is your dog your doppelgänger? Why pets develop human-like features — or vice versa
Why do animals living with humans evolve such similar features? A new theory could explain ‘domestication syndrome’ ...
New wave of neuroscience: Tech companies experimenting with controversial brain-focused products?
Consumer-facing neurotechnology could make computers more accessible — and pose a new kind of threat to data privacy ...
How can we decrease risks of getting genetic-based diseases even if we carry potentially harmful genes?
The study of genetics has always been an attempt to understand our biologically determined fate. Many of us know of ...
Viewpoint: How to interpret crude racial categories that have historically defined human biological variation
Racial categories are crude maps imposed on human biological variation. How do scientists square them with genetics? ...
