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.
Robot arm helps paralyzed man have drink using only his thoughts
Erik Sorto hasn't been able to move his arms or legs in a decade, after a gunshot wound 13 years ...
Nature vs nuture debate put to rest: Both equally important in determining traits
It has long been a subject of debate: are human traits determined by nurture or nature? Now, a team of ...
White House issues endorsement of microbiome research for health, environment
Advances in gene-sequencing technology have expanded our knowledge of microorganisms, revealing new species in every environment from the upper atmosphere ...
Lifestyle changes can’t alter DNA: Claiming it can is a public disservice
Lifestyle changes have profound effects on human health, more so than most blockbuster drugs. But despite their potency, supplements, exercise ...
700,000-year-old tool discovery raises question of evolution of human intelligence
Was there someone before human existence who had the same or may be higher intelligence level? A research conducted by ...
Even after death, the body is teeming with life
Far from being ‘dead’, a rotting corpse is teeming with life. A growing number of scientists view a rotting corpse ...
Test for plaque in brain might clue future Alzheimer’s risk
The largest analysis to date of amyloid plaques in people’s brains confirms that the presence of the substance can help ...
Safety and efficacy of oxytocin hormone treatments brought to question
There’s a new paper out by Gareth Leng and Mike Ludwig that bears the coy title “Intranasal Oxytocin: Myths and Delusions” ...
Danger of unapproved stem cell therapies growing as clinics expand across US
More than 170 clinics across the country are selling experimental stem cell procedures for dozens of diseases and conditions — ...
Has Big Genomics lived up to its hype?
“Success in sight: The eyes have it!” Thus the scientific journal Gene Therapy greeted the news, in 2008, that an experimental treatment was restoring ...
“Home brewed morphine” from genetically engineered yeast? What did the media get wrong?
Researchers report creating genetically engineered yeast strains that take us one step closer to producing opiates using microbes. How did ...
Youthful blood may not be a miracle elixir against aging, despite hopeful research
For decades, scientists have sought to understand the anti-ageing effects of parabiosis, a technique in which researchers sew a young ...
Brain has special process for distinguishing human speech from other noises
Researchers from Duke University and MIT discovered that part of our brains that is responsible for human speech recognition. Until recently, ...
International gathering of scientists, ethicists seeks to set standards for future of biotech
Roughly 135 scientists, bioethicists, philosophers, lawyers, and policymakers from 25 countries wrapped up the first-ever global summit to carve out ...
Should donor-conceived children have legal right to know biological parents?
Joanna Rose’s father, if he is still alive, would be perfectly within his rights to refuse to have anything to ...
National Academy of Sciences seeks to set guidelines for use of CRISPR-Cas9
The National Academy of Sciences, responding to concerns expressed by scientists and ethicists, has launched an ambitious initiative to recommend ...
‘Angelina Jolie effect’: How genetic tests for cancer risk help patients with difficult decisions
Lori Heid was about to get the results of a genetic test that looked for mutations in 25 genes known ...
Should there be tighter regulations on gene editing in wildlife?
The ethical issues raised by human germline engineering are not new. They deserve consideration, but outcry over designer babies and ...
Going bald? It’s not your mother’s fault
You’re only 25 and you’ve begun to lose your hair? Before you freak out (entirely), remember that everyone loses hair ...
What are the odds? Family celebrates birth of 13th consecutive son
Beyond X and Y chromosomes, scientists postulate genes and environmental exposures play a roll in making sons or daughters more ...
If we encountered extraterrestrial aliens, what would they look like?
With thousands of planets outside Earth's solar system, there's a pretty good chance that some of them have the conditions ...
How genetic forensics will help protect Kenyan wildlife from poaching
In Kenya, poaching of wildlife for bush meat, trophies such as rhino horns and elephant tusks, skins of animals, feathers ...
Autism study reveals patterns in family genetics
A study of 2,377 children with autism, their parents and siblings - data from families with one child with autism ...
Brain disorder impedes navigation by preventing internal ‘map’
Even though she hates lawn ornaments, Sharon Roseman, 68, has a grinning, pink lobster outside her home in Highlands Ranch, ...
DNA evidence in Meredith Kercher murder points to failings of genetic forensic analysis
Amanda Knox, along with Raffaele Sollecito, was definitively cleared of killing Meredith Kercher earlier this year, but only after a ...
Human origins debate: Did diversity evolve exclusively in Africa?
Analyses of the genomes of Neanderthals and Denisovans, the closest evolutionary relatives of present-day humans, suggest that our ancestors were ...
How psychologist made decision to end own life after Alzheimer’s diagnosis
For two years, Sandy Bem, a Cornell psychology professor, had been experiencing what she called “cognitive oddities”: forgetting the names of ...
