Daily Human Digest
Employees can protect themselves against workplace genetic discrimination
As genetic testing and genetic information become increasingly available, it is critical that employers have a full understanding of current ...
UV light absorbtion drove benefit of light skin mutations in human evolution
The popular idea that Northern Europeans developed light skin to absorb more UV light so they could make more vitamin ...
Anti-GMO advocates try to scare diabetics off life-saving genetically engineered drug treatment
Usually food-obsessed anti-GMO advocates have turned their sights toward one of modern technology’s must prized successes: genetically engineered synthetic human ...
Woman seeks to ban surrogacy
Jennifer Lahl is on a crusade to outlaw surrogacy, the process by which women lend their wombs to would-be mothers ...
Payout deadline approaches for North Carolina forced sterilization victims
In 1948, as Naomi Schenck was rushed into a North Carolina operating room because she was having a miscarriage, the ...
Faced with a sick brother, reporter wonders whether to get DNA tested
In the fall of 2010, as my brother was dying of colon cancer, I learned a terrifying secret. He also ...
Including vasectomies in court sentencing new eugenics
Put this in the "can they even do that?" files. Jesse Lee Herald of Edinburg, Virginia, received an unusual sentence ...
Early human inter-species breeding results point to fourth mystery species
The evolutionary tree for modern humans a bit of a mess - humans haven’t had a close relative on this ...
Call for integrity for stem cell research amid global controversy
Scientists around the world are campaigning in favor of sensible regulation of stem-cell therapies. We have two reactions: (1) kudos ...
Shaking up science with transgenerational epigenetics and blurred species boundaries
A "top five ideas shaking up science" list from The Guardian and author Michael Brooks hits on two of the ...
Exercise, stress speeds brain’s ability to repair iteself
Running helps mice to recover from a type of blindness caused by sensory deprivation early in life, researchers report. The ...
Speciation is a human construct, sometimes genetics often don’t overlap
Scientific taxonomy is only a rough and approximate mapping of the reality of natural history and evolutionary genetics, which it ...
Gamete freezing offers promise of prolonging fertility but is far from perfect
I told my therapist that I was considering freezing my eggs, and she said she thought it was a good ...
Will synthetic biology suffer from same taboos as GMOs?
Science and industry are marching along with advances from this relatively new form of biological engineering, especially in the areas ...
Genesis and ethics of embryo’s conceived with help of a third parent
In August 1996, at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, N.J., a 39-year-old mechanical engineer from Pittsburgh named Maureen Ott ...
Picture of risk: One family’s story of the threat of genetic disease
When a fetus may have a genetic condition, parents face a great deal of uncertainty when evaluating risk for their ...
T-cells trained to fight viruses offer hope for bone marrow transplant patients
A team at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas has devised a much more efficient method for 'training' killer ...
What is ‘precision medicine’?
The future of precision medicine means every patient will have treatments and prevention tailored to his or her genes and ...
Claim Ashkenazi Jews are descendants of pagan Khazars who converted in Middle Ages confirmed as myth
The claim that today’s Ashkenazi Jews are descended from Khazars who converted in the Middle Ages is a myth, according ...
Fly gene may explain human language evolution
The evolution of language in humans continues to perplex scientists and linguists who study how humans learn to communicate. Considered ...
Reverse reefer madness? Schizophrenia genes predict heavy pot use
Does marijuana smoking cause psychosis? Or could psychosis drive pot smoking? If you believe the panned and parodied 1936 film ...
Fetal genome sequencing must strike balance of too much information
Once you go beyond looking for specific genetic mutations—such as those that cause Down syndrome or cystic fibrosis—and begin exploring ...
Nature vs. nurture affects how we age
What makes us age biologically? We have always been intrigued by this question. Yet, it remains a fundamental research challenge ...
To acquire all blood diet, vampire bats lost genes for bitter taste
Vampire bats have lousy taste. But they’re not bitter about it. According to research published today in Proceedings of the ...
Shitty story: Oldest-ever human fossil feces suggests Neanderthal’s omnivory
Poop is the 'perfect evidence' when it comes to answering questions about diet, and a record-setting new find of fossilized ...
Genetics likely determine who benefits from vitamins in the developed world
In 1911, Polish biochemist Casimir Funk discovered what was behind a then-mysterious neurological condition known as beriberi, common in regions ...
Brain cancer may have rogue stem cell origin, option for treatment
Glioblastoma and other related malignant glioma tumors including diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) are some of the most devastating of ...