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.
Even after we reach herd immunity, COVID booster vaccines will likely be necessary to stop variants
Influenza viruses are fast-changing, making it difficult for the human body to build an immune response, which is why the ...
1 percent of European couples are at risk of having a child with a severe recessive genetic disorder
Based on 6,447 exome sequences of healthy, genetically unrelated Europeans of two distinct ancestries... researchers calculated that each individual is ...
How the evolution of an ancient fish gave humans the ability to speak
[E]very voice (barks, whinnies, whines, chirps, squeals, meows, ribbits, roars, the State of the Union address) derives from a common ...
Viewpoint: Why the effort to find a ‘biological basis’ for being transgender is misguided and unhelpful
The search for a biological cause of transness—also known as “biological essentialism”—may be well-intentioned, but it is a dangerous path ...
Workout junkie? Daily high-intensity workouts might be problematic to your health
Consisting of repeated, brief spurts of hard exercise interspersed with a few minutes of rest, [high-intensity interval training, or] HIIT ...
Opening the door to understanding infertility: Skin cells reprogrammed into a model human embryo
[Scientists have made a] significant breakthrough for the future study of early human development and infertility. To date, the only ...
Do omega-3 fatty acid fish oil supplements lower heart disease risk? Only for people with specific genes, researchers find
[N]ew research from a team led by a University of Georgia scientist indicates that taking fish oil only provides health ...
Cure for sickle cell diseases inches closer with launch of gene therapy trial
For 65 years, scientists have known the cause of sickle cell disease but have been unable to cure it without ...
Why do we find puppies more adorable than babies? The neuroscience of cuteness
[W]hat exactly happens in the brain when we gaze at a baby? And why do we respond the same way ...
Arizona House passes bill making it a felony to terminate a pregnancy if the fetus has a survivable genetic abnormality
The Republican-controlled Arizona House on [April 1] approved a sweeping abortion bill that makes it a felony for a doctor ...
Concussions may soon be diagnosable with a simple saliva test
A team of scientists and doctors studied more than 150 rugby players at England’s highest level between 2017 and 2019, ...
Cilantro is one of the most loved — and hated — herbs. Why does it taste like soap to some people?
Coriander, also known as cilantro, is one of the most commonly used herbs in the world, but a preference for ...
If we ever encounter extraterrestrial life, here’s why they might not seem so alien
[University of Cambridge Professor Arik Kershenbaum] argues that evolution is a universal law of nature, like gravity — and that ...
Why do humans suffer from more diseases than other animals?
[C]ompared to chimpanzees, what makes us special is apparently our outsized capacity for serious mental illnesses and weird facial shapes, ...
‘We don’t need to work with BioNTech’: After a successful COVID vaccine collaboration, Pfizer plans on tackling other diseases with mRNA technology alone
Pfizer will develop new shots using the technology, called mRNA, to target other viruses and pathogens beyond the coronavirus, Chief ...
Generous apes: What explains the evolution of human kindness?
With chimpanzees, the prospect of food can lead to aggression. But bonobos take a different approach, says Suzy Kwetuenda, a ...
Who will win the battle over CRISPR-Cas 9 patent rights?
History is full of cases in which several researchers have found the same or similar inventions almost simultaneously. This is ...
How women turned the tide against smallpox in the 1700s
Smallpox was far deadlier than the coronavirus the world is currently battling. Fatality rates were as high as 30%, and ...
What’s your biological age? There’s a genetic clock that could tell you
Biological age isn’t as simple as counting the number of birthday candles you’ve blown out like your chronological age. Rather, ...
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Neil deGrasse Tyson on our distrust of scientists: Why do we love our smartphones but reject science when it comes to COVID?
We have apparently passed through a portal where pseudoscience, anti-science, fear-of-science and science-denial all thrive in our culture. Where systems ...
Human embryo research restrictions: Scientists move to drop 14-day limit on research
For the last 40 years, the rule, which is law in some countries and a guideline in others, has served ...
Psychedelic mushrooms in your future? Oregon edges closer to becoming first state to license therapeutic use
Oregon is about to become the first state in the country to try to build a support infrastructure through which ...
Here is the consensus theory of why Neanderthals went extinct
Noting over “a dozen serious hypotheses'' about the enigmatic disappearance of our nearest cousins [the neanderthals, researchers] conducted a poll ...
Exploring the mystery of consciousness: Is it everywhere in nature?
Accounting for the nature of consciousness appears elusive, with many claiming that it cannot be defined at all, yet defining ...
Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder are all in part genetically hard-wired
To understand the similarities and differences between the genetic patterns of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder, the research ...
World’s most expensive drug: £1.79 million one-off Zolgensma treatment approved by British National Health Service to treat spinal muscular dystrophy in children
Zolgensma, which costs £1.79m per dose, halts the progression of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), which involves loss of movement, muscle ...
