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
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 ...
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? ...
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 thatÂ
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 ...
