Daily Human Digest
Every day, the staff of the Genetic Literacy Project scours the Web for stories on a range of human genetics issues, including gene editing, regulations and bioethics, gene therapy, epigenetics, personal genomics, evolution, ancestry and artificial intelligence. We publish excerpts of those stories and encourage our readers to visit the original publications for the complete stories.
Battling malaria: Bill Gates backs gene editing of mosquitoes, acknowledges ethical concerns
Gene-editing technologies that alter mosquitoes’ DNA could prove critical in the fight against malaria, Bill Gates said on [April 18], ...
Viewpoint: Universe started with a bang, will end with a frigid ‘slow, gradual death’
When will our universe reach the point of maximum entropy? And what other possibilities exist for our universe in the ...
Consume more than 5 glasses of wine or beer per week? Each additional drink decreases lifespan by 30 minutes, study claims
Drinking will shorten your life, according to a study that suggests every glass of wine or pint of beer over ...
Kidney cancer: New DNA test can measure whether tumor might be fatal
Hundreds of people with kidney cancer could be spared surgery with a DNA test that can identify whether tumours are ...
Gene therapy and rare diseases: ‘Is curing patients a sustainable business model?’
An analyst at Goldman Sachs asked a troubling question...about gene therapy. “Is curing patients a sustainable business model?” In social media, reactions ...
Transhumanist super athletes: CRISPR and ‘gene doping’ therapy poised to roil sports
[In the 1990s], gene therapy -- defined as the technique of using and manipulating genes in order to treat or ...
Night owls more likely to eat poorly, use drugs, die earlier
Night owls may be more fun at parties, but a preference for staying out late may come with some serious ...
Viewpoint: Regulating dangerous biological weapons research ‘not an impossible task’
With current advances in biology, we can’t afford to avoid the topic any longer. It is high time the international ...
Our brain works ’10 million times slower’ than computers—so why is it better at some tasks?
[W]hy is the computer good at certain tasks whereas the brain is better at others? Comparing the computer and the ...
Biohacking can work wonders on machines, but on humans? Not so much.
We can hack our technologies, and even our societies, so why not ourselves? Alas, things are not so straightforward. While ...
Obesity paradox explained? Why muscle mass may reduce risk of death
Nearly twenty years ago, researchers began noticing a curious paradox in health-focused studies: despite common wisdom that being overweight or obese is ...
Kepler 452 b: Inhabitable ‘Earth 2.0’ could be statistical mirage, study shows
Some astronomers are questioning the existence of what might be the most Earth-like planet yet found outside the solar system, based ...
Caffeine more than a morning boost? It may increase brain’s ‘useful anarchy’ and ‘processing capacity’
“[B]rain entropy” – intense complexity and irregular variability in brain activity from one moment to the next, [is] marked by greater ...
Landmark cancer tumor drug Keytruda hampered by glitches
A landmark cancer drug approved last year seemed to herald a long-anticipated change in the treatment of some tumours: with ...
What fossilized teeth tell us about human evolution
Examining the fossil record through the lens of evolutionary developmental biology may help scientists reassess the evolutionary history of humans ...
Viewpoint: We need to know if CRISPR works in monkeys and possible off-target effects before we start human trials
Sometime this year, people in the US and Europe will start getting treated for diseases using the gene-editing tool CRISPR, but ...
Travel to Mars: Can gene therapy help us clear deadly radiation hurdle?
An international group of researchers has come up with a new plan to help astronauts survive high-level radiation in space ...
Hidden half of us: ‘You’re more microbe than you are human’
More than half of your body is not human, say scientists. Human cells make up only 43% of the body's ...
Can humans reproduce in space? NASA wants to know
If the thought of conceiving in space or the potential of one day giving birth there seem unimaginable and far-fetched ...
Traits of masculinity: What does it mean to ‘be a man’?
There are commonalities of human behavior that extend beyond any geographic or cultural boundary. Every known society has a sexual ...
How we can make vaccines more effective in newborns
The immune system is known for its ability to remember its response to pathogens, leading to more efficient clearance of ...
23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki: No need for experts to interpret direct-to-consumer breast and ovarian cancer tests
My company, 23andMe, recently received FDA authorization for the first ever direct-to-consumer genetic test for an inherited risk for cancer. Specifically, it tests for ...
Evolution of the eyebrow and why it’s so important for communication
Modern humans might never have raised a quizzical eyebrow had Homo sapiens not lost the thick, bony brows of its ancient ...
Viewpoint: Precision medicine based on white populations could ‘reinforce existing societal and economic inequalities’
Sequencing the human genome has shown us that we are mostly all made up of the same stuff, but it’s ...
Proposed Chinese cancer mega-center named after Nobel laureate James Watson may refocus on precision medicine
James Watson, the Nobel laureate who turns 90 this week, was front and center on a red-carpeted stage before an ...
Discovery of ancient finger in Saudi Arabia suggests humans left Africa 20,000 years earlier than assumed
It’s just a lone, boney middle finger, but the scientists who found it say it’s the oldest directly dated fossil ...
Viewpoint: Peggy Sarlin’s ‘Awakening from Alzheimer’s’ offers ‘false claims, false hope’
[S]cientists are diligently working to understand [Alzheimer’s] disease and find an effective treatment. Others apparently think they needn’t bother. A ...
7 ways CRISPR gene editing is changing the world
Here are a few ways researchers are already using [CRISPR] to make the world a better place; 1. Produce transplant ...
