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
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? ...
Viewpoint: How social justice ideology is infecting the nascent field of astrobiology
Astrobiology: Premature claims, distorted results, and ‘decolonizing’ the search for extraterrestrial intelligence ...
Haeckel v. Miklucho-Maclay: The 19th century battle between a race scientist and his indigenous-rights supporting protégé
Ernst Haeckel pushed race science as his little-known protégé Nikolai Miklucho-Maclay defended Indigenous rights ...
Balding throughout the ages
Balding is really common, affecting more than 50% of men. It’s also physically inconsequential (bald men live just as long ...
Superbugs: Climate change spurs dangerous rise in antibiotic resistance in humans and animals
he next time you need to take antibiotics, they may not work. So you may be prescribed a different antibiotic, ...
GLP podcast and video: ChatGPT more empathetic than doctors? How ideology corrupts science; Testing drugs on mini-organs, not animals
Is ChatGPT more empathetic than your doctor? A recent study seems to suggest so. An emerging consensus of scientists is ...
How COVID can lodge itself in our brains
As the fourth year of the pandemic dawns, a study published in Nature from Daniel Chertow, MD, MPH, head of ...
It’s been nearly 60 years since the first known transgender surgery took place in the United States. Here’s what’s happened since.
Enforcement of binary gender norms has led to unwanted medical interventions on intersex and cisgender children ...
How Africa evolved as the crucible for early human transition from forest-inhabiting fruit-eaters to savanna-dwelling hunters
That humans originated in Africa is widely accepted. But it’s not generally recognised how unique features of Africa’s ecology were ...
Pharmacy shelves are bare of many critical drugs. Reciprocity between the US and other countries could help address that
Dr. Deborah Greenhouse, a pediatrician in South Carolina, tweeted on February 1, OK pediatricians, I'm starting a new contest: Who ...
Viewpoint: Netflix’s Ancient Apocalypse ‘devalues both archaeology and Indigenous heritage’
Author Graham Hancock is back, defending his well-trodden theory about an advanced global ice age civilisation, which he connects in ...
Video: Here’s how early life on Earth could have originated elsewhere in the cosmos
The incredible survival skills of certain forms of bacteria and archaea, including the ability to stay dormant...in space ...
GLP podcast and video: Ice cream cuts obesity risk? Anti-vaccine study retracted; If you’re afraid of chemicals, quit drinking alcohol
Could ice cream reduce your risk of diabetes and obesity? A surprising amount of evidence supports that hypothesis. How do ...
Viewpoint: Joseph Ladapo, Florida’s conspiracy-promoting, vaccine-rejecting surgeon general, is a public menace
He has blood on his hands. Even as the worst of the health crisis ignited by the SARS-CoV-2 virus fades, ...
Envisioning what doesn’t exist: How humans and other mammals evolved the capacity for memory
Imagination makes us human – this unique ability to envision what doesn’t exist has a long evolutionary history ...
Does IVF increase the risk of breast or ovarian cancer by as much as 65%, as some studies claim?
Statistics related to medical risks and care often unnecessarily frighten people, and lousy journalism doesn't help ...
Is biology sexist and racist? The escalating battle over ‘inclusive terminology’ and the language of science
Science, biology in particular, is rife with racism and other egregious forms of prejudice and bigotry. That’s the belief now ...
Did Neanderthals’ meat-eating habits contribute to their demise?
Understanding our ancestors’ diets may reveal critical clues about their evolutionary success or failure ...
Viewpoint: Modern humanity is only 300,000 years along. Does that explain why we screw up so much?
How can humans have gotten so far, but still have so many problems? We are a young species. We are ...
