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.
Over a million frozen embryos are left in limbo. Should they be donated?
Higher IVF success rates mean more embryos are being left unused—and more families wrestling with questions about what to do ...
Viewpoint: Tech Panic Cycle — AI could transform entertainment, education, health care, unless over wrought fears shut down innovation
Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have heightened imaginations about what the future holds ...
Video: Stone ring structures found in Neanderthal cave in France continue to fuel reassessment of our once scorned hominid cousins
We haven’t been very kind to Neanderthals since their remains were first unearthed in the 19th century, often characterizing them ...
Early Alzheimer’s diagnosis: Scanning the eye with AI tools could help us catch dementia 20 years before symptoms show up
RetiSpec developed an artificial-intelligence algorithm that it says can analyze results from an eye scanner to detect signs of Alzheimer’s ...
Is biological age testing useful or overrated?
New tests promise to tell you if you have the cells of a 30-year-old or a 60-year-old. Here’s what to ...
Drug-free pain management: Retraining the brain with ‘pain reprocessing therapy’ hopes to offer alternative to opioids
“Pain reprocessing therapy,” tries to train the brain not to send false pain signals. Some early results are promising ...
Night owls vs mourning doves: Neanderthal genes explain why some people find it easy to wake up early
Scientists find genes inherited from our prehistoric cousins increase tendency to rise early – useful in regions with short winter ...
When will needle-free COVID vaccines arrive in the US?
Vaccines delivered through the nose or mouth should help stop infection where it begins. But researchers are still working to ...
Morning sickness used to be a mystery. Now researchers say they have figured out the root cause
Researchers from Cambridge University sought to understand the causes of morning sickness in hopes of one day preventing it ...
Move over, Ozempic: Vibrating pill can satiate hunger, leading to weight loss
Dieters may have an answer now as research showed that a vibrating pill, swallowed before eating, that creates feelings of ...
How ‘detransitioners’ are affecting gender-affirming care laws across the US
Dozens of detransitioners have gained prominence this year, suing the doctors and clinics from which they received care ...
Scent on the brain: Decline in olfactory abilities can signal conditions such as Alzheimer’s
Now researchers say our sense of smell, and its connection to our memory, could be used to help fight dementia ...
For synthetic biology, 2023 was a very opportune year
Synthetic biology is a multidisciplinary field that often draws inspiration from nature to build molecular components ...
‘Alcohol genes’? How much you drink may be influenced by your DNA
Research found those who drank a lot — at least 5 bottles of wine a week for men, and 3.5 ...
21st century evolution: Humans are evolving ‘more rapidly than ever before’
It is often assumed that modern humans are no longer evolving. But there is now considerable agreement among scientists that ...
‘Big Weed’: How today’s cannabis landscape mirrors tobacco companies in the 1950s
OK, marijuana is now legal. So where’s the public health approach? Strictly speaking, marijuana use isn’t fully legal across the ...
Organs on demand, AI innovation, CRISPR for cholesterol: Top 10 tech breakthroughs of 2023
MIT Technology Review has unveiled its list of the top 10 breakthrough technologies that made headlines in 2023. From cutting-edge ...
Highschoolers used AI to create non-consensual sexually explicit images. Here’s how US lawmakers are responding
Legislators are responding quickly after high school teens used AI to create nonconsensual sexually explicit images ...
Podcast: Breast milk provides immunity benefits — but isn’t accessible to all parents. Here’s how artificial milk could one day replace standard baby formula
Breast milk imparts a number of long-term health benefits to babies, including a lower risk of asthma, obesity, Type 1 ...
Past and present intertwine: Traumatic memories spark brain area involved in introspection and daydreaming
Traumatic memories appeared to engage a different area of the brain — the posterior cingulate cortex or P.C.C ...
Video: ‘New humans’ — Combination of artificial intelligence, bionics, CRISPR and cloning could create next generation of humanity, says Siddhartha Mukherjee
Technologies like CRISPR gene editing, synthetic biology, bionics integrated with AI, and cloning will create "new humans," says Dr. Siddhartha ...
Backward slide for malaria: 16 million more cases in 2022 than before the pandemic
Malaria cases in 2022 exceeded the prepandemic level by 16 million cases, with several threats—including climate change—hampering progress ...
Jet lag and night shifts disturb our sleep cycles and molecular clocks. Could a drug one day reduce these effects?
The circadian clock sits in our brains keeps our bodies in rhythm and this helps control when we wake, eat, ...
Humans are born with brains roughly comparable to small primates — then humans have a brain development boom
A new study challenges the belief that human newborns have significantly less developed brains than other primates ...
Viewpoint: I took the exa-cel treatment for sickle cell disease. My symptoms ‘virtually disappeared overnight’
Exa-cel, the first CRISPR-based treatment to win approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, following the UK’s approval ...
Determining dementia risk: 21-point Brain Care Score predicts chances of dementia and stroke later in life
A new tool named the Brain Care Score, or BCS, may help you assess your risk of developing dementia or ...
Size isn’t everything: Brain connections and neuron wiring contribute more to human intelligence than volume
Human brains are bigger than those of our primate relatives, but evidence from extinct human ancestors suggests brain size isn't ...
