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.
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 ...
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 ...
Stem cells responsible for fat in bone marrow and consequent disease
Our bones are not stagnant, rock-like things. They change. Marrow—the tissue inside bones—is full of various kinds of cells. And ...
Wade’s genetics of race overestimates evolution’s impact on human culture
In his latest book, Nicholas Wade, a longtime science journalist, argues that evolution by natural selection created human races with ...
Later childbirth related to longer life for moms
Women who naturally conceive their last child after age 33 tend to live longer than those who have their final ...
Under guise of ‘free market’, stem cell start ups take sick patients for risky rides
Some companies are marketing stem cell therapies to sick patients long before they've proven them safe or effective while governmental ...
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 ...
Genetic evidence points toward prosperity to explain dramatic expansion of Ashkenazi Jewry
Many people looking at Jewish population history have boggled at the idea of a small group expanding to a few ...
Turning foe friendly: Domestication of infectious disease
With the shortage of antibiotics and resistant infections on the rise, evolutionary biologists might provide alternative for curbing infections disease ...
Herpes viruses infected our ancient ancestors
About two-thirds of people are infected with one of two herpes simplex viruses, oral (HSV-1) or genital (HSV-2). New research ...
Computer program reads facial features to identify rare genetic diseases
Doctors faced with the tricky task of spotting rare genetic diseases in children may soon be asking parents to email ...
As much mystery surrounds Neanderthals’ evolution as their demise
The emergence of Neanderthals is just as mysterious as their disappearance about 30,000 years ago. A study of skulls from ...
Tearing down bacteria’s walls offers hope for new class of treatment
Scientists at the University of East Anglia have made a breakthrough in the race to solve antibiotic resistance. New research ...
Earliest case of irrigation-loving parasite found in Fertile Cresent
The law of unintended consequences may have a longer history than we thought. At a Neolithic settlement in the region ...
Epigentics: sorting out the hype from the substance
We haven't written much about epigenetics for a while, in part because it's so trendy that it's impossible to know ...
Welcome to the strange new world of synthetic biology
Over the past decade, the ease of sequencing and creating DNA has improved so much that the possibilities of genetic ...
