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
Dissecting male-female brain and behavior differences
People have searched for sex differences in human brains since at least the 19th century, when scientist Samuel George Morton ...
Stigmatization faced by people who underwent intersex surgeries to correct ambiguous genitalia
Eugene Robinson recovered from his double mastectomy on a hospital porch in Durham, North Carolina. It was August 1956, and ...
COVID pandemic exposes Africa’s need for long-term solutions to Lassa fever and other neglected tropical diseases
Spread by food contaminated by the feces or urine of disease-carrying rodents and endemic to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and ...
5 things you should know if you have COVID and are asymptomatic
Blood tests that check for exposure to the coronavirus are starting to come online, and preliminary findings suggest that many ...
Viewpoint: Ideology, politics pollute the debate over health risks of red meat
For decades there has been a statistical controversy about meat. By statistical I mean it was never a real health ...
Debating group differences in intelligence: A conversation with philosopher Nathan Cofnas
Nathan Cofnas is an American philosopher and philosophy PhD Candidate at Oxford University. He is known for his works on ...
Rewiring your central nervous system with 3D printing
Last month, Philadelphia Eagles speedy receiver DeSean Jackson almost got himself released when he shared on Twitter quotes attributed to ...
Is artificial intelligence (AI) medicine racially biased?
The power of artificial intelligence has transformed health care by using massive datasets to improve diagnostics, treatment, records management, and patient ...
Gene therapy for hemophilia delayed until 2022 after FDA rejects one-time treatment, shocking doctors and scientists
U.S. regulators rejected [Biomarin’s] potentially game-changing hemophilia A gene therapy over concerns it might not really be a one-and-done lifetime ...
Viewpoint: Media focus on COVID-19 deaths ignores lasting impact of ‘calamitous pandemic’
The media regularly reports about deaths from COVID-19 as if that is the whole story. But it's not. COVID-19 doesn't ...
Viewpoint: Is there a scientific basis to ban gene drive technology that can rid us of virus-carrying rodents and mosquitoes?
Gene drives may be invaluable tools to control the spread of parasites, invasive species, and disease carriers. But the technology ...
Why SARS disappeared in 2003 while the coronavirus keeps on spreading
The unusual cases of pneumonia began to appear in midwinter, in China. The cause, researchers would later learn, was a ...
Podcast: Rebel Cell: Cancer, evolution and the science of life
Geneticist Dr Kat Arney brings you exclusive excerpts from her new book Rebel Cell, exploring where cancer came from, where ...
‘Vaccine nationalism’: Will the spoils go to the victors in the vaccine race?
Hundreds of COVID-19 vaccine candidates are currently being developed. The way emerging vaccines will be distributed to those who need them ...
Why do humans mate in private? Instinct or morality?
A debate has emerged as to why humans mate in private while every other animal – except the Arabian babbler ...
Real life Jurassic Park? Recovered prehistoric DNA raises prospect of resurrecting species
Even before Jurassic Park became a staple of pop culture in the early 1990s, geneticists have been on the hunt ...
COVID-19 conspiracy theories give people the feeling of being in control
A few weeks ago, I took an uncomfortable trip down the rabbit hole of Covid-19 conspiracy theory videos. As a newly ...
‘Immunological dark matter’: Is this why some people have a pre-existing immunity to COVID-19?
More than half a million people have died from COVID-19 globally. It is a major tragedy, but perhaps not on the ...
Video: Death by COVID: The projected grim toll in historical context
The latest statistics, as of July 10, show COVID-19-related deaths in U.S. are just under 1,000 per day nationally, which is ...
‘Tantalizing solutions’: How we are developing the next generation of cancer drugs
Cancer treatments have always been linked to a specific part of the body — these drugs for breast cancer, and ...
Podcast: Global population crash; Pesticide bans backfire; beef producing CRISPR male cows
CRISPR could enable farmers to produce more beef from fewer cattle, boosting farm sustainability. Lawsuits designed to get pesticides and ...
Vaccine ‘durability’: COVID-19 immunizations coming soon but will they last?
As the days unfold with a seeming sameness in this odd summer of the pandemic, news of vaccine clinical trials ...
Podcast: From the Black Death to COVID-19—Investigating the ancient war between genes and disease
Kat Arney looks at the ancient war between our genes and the pathogens that infect us, from the Black Death ...
Evolutionary puzzle: Why do fraternal twins exist?
The chances of having fraternal twins changes with maternal age and is heritable ...
Podcast: Europe suspends GMO rules to speed COVID vaccine; genes and coronavirus; Keto diet fights Alzheimer’s?
Europe has suspended some of its oppressive GMO regulations to speed development of a COVID-19 vaccine, drawing accusations of hypocrisy ...
Facing taboos: Conversation with GLP’s Jon Entine on sustainable agriculture, race and sports, ‘Jewish genetics’ and social investing
Jon Entine is an American science writer. He is the founder and executive director of the Genetic Literacy Project, a ...
COVID-19 is causing silent epidemics — societal and medical crises
As the nation emerges in fits and starts from the lockdowns spurred by the first wave of COVID-19 illnesses, we’re ...
