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.
Why speaking a second language could help your aging brain
[D]oes mastering a second language hone our multitasking skills or merely muddle us up? … In the Annual Review of Linguistics, ...
Viewpoint: The problem with personalized medicine is that ‘statistics are being misinterpreted’
Personalized medicine aims to match individuals with the therapy that is best suited to them and their condition. Advocates proclaim ...
Reversing OCD with intensive 4-day ‘head-on’ therapy
[A]round nine years after [Katherine] Mydland-aas’s cleaning rituals began, a psychologist diagnosed her with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and referred her ...
DNA analysis shows ‘everyone had been wrong’ about mysterious Siberian unicorn
It didn't look much like the dainty unicorns of myth and legend, but the extinct unicorn of Siberia is even ...
‘Cheap and simple’ 10-minute blood test can detect traces of cancer
Scientists have developed a universal cancer test that can detect traces of the disease in a patient’s bloodstream. The cheap ...
‘Stemness’ and the downside of limiting our definition of stem cells
As more sophisticated technology has revealed just how plastic and heterogeneous cell populations can be, some researchers have transitioned from ...
Alien limb syndrome: Understanding how brain injuries can rob the sense of free will
When Ryan Darby was a neurology resident, he was familiar with something called alien limb syndrome, but that did not ...
Is evolution denial an attempt to ‘make humans special’?
Evolutionary biology has always been controversial. Not controversial among biologists, but controversial among the general public. This is largely because ...
Can gene therapy offer a cure for sickle-cell disease?
[I]n November, six months after [21-year-old Manny] Johnson became the first patient to receive an experimental therapy aimed at curing ...
Searching for keys to cancer resistance in the genome of giant tortoise Lonesome George
An international research team has discovered several variants in tortoise genomes that potentially affect six of the nine hallmarks of ...
Podcast: How deep brain stimulation relieves depression symptoms
There's new evidence that mild pulses of electricity can relieve depression — if they reach the right target in the ...
‘Interesting puzzle’ created by hand tools found near long-vanished Arabian rivers
Nearly 200,000 years ago, at the confluence of two long-vanished river systems in the heart of Arabia, people climbed a ...
NIH blocks research using fetal tissue, prompting calls of ‘scientific censorship’
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have been ordered not to acquire new fetal tissue for their research since ...
Targeting cancer with sugar-powered immunotherapy
Over the last few decades, researchers tinkering with molecules that turn an immune cell on and off have created a ...
Delayed diagnosis? In some children, autism traits become ‘significantly more pronounced over time’
Some autistic children don’t show traits of the condition until age 5 or later, new research suggests. Others show a ...
Treating depression with brain-stimulating implants
[A] new study out of the University of California, San Francisco, published [November 29] in Current Biology, seems to offer an intriguing ...
Viewpoint: Science needs to embrace the difference between sex and gender—without abandoning the past
Lots of sites, including three scientific societies, have rejected the new Health and Human Services guidelines that provide a classification of ...
Startling discovery: Ancient mixed-race girl had Neanderthal and Denisovan parents
[T]ens of thousands of years ago, modern humans encountered Denisovans – and had sex with them. It is a startling ...
‘Less expected’: China condemns research yielding gene-edited babies
On Nov. 26, U.S.-trained, Shenzhen-based He Jiankui announced that he’d altered the genes of a human embryo to create the ...
Brains of young football players can be changed in one season, study says
A single season playing football might be all it takes to change a young athlete's brain. … Researchers used special ...
Artificial placentas could transform research into miscarriages, still births and other pregnancy disorders
Scientists have grown “mini placentas” in a breakthrough that could transform research into the underlying causes of miscarriage, stillbirth and ...
Should law enforcement have a universal genetic forensic database?
The idea of the government having access to every citizen’s DNA might sound like an Orwellian nightmare, but recent events suggest we’re ...
Mitochondrial DNA can be passed on from fathers, too
You probably learned two things about mitochondria in high school biology. First, they’re the powerhouses of the cell. Second, you ...
Colonial warfare: Were smallpox-infected blankets given to Native Americans?
North American colonists’ warfare against Native Americans often was horrifyingly brutal. But one method they appear to have used shocks even more ...
CRISPR treatment for rare genetic eye disorder gains FDA study approval
Days after a Chinese researcher incensed the world of science with claims of editing the genomes of twin girls, an American ...
Searching for the genetic links to ADHD risk
If you have ADHD, chances are higher that your siblings do, too. Estimates differ as to how strong the connection ...
Are dogs really all that smart? This study says ‘no’
If you are convinced your dog is a genius, you may be disappointed in the conclusions of a study just published ...
Transplanted uterus leads to successful birth of baby girl
A team of doctors in Brazil have announced a medical first that could someday help countless women unable to have ...
