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.
‘Absurdly crude and misleading’: Why some scientists believe evolution theory could be due for an update
The basic story of evolution, as recounted in countless textbooks and pop-science bestsellers, is absurdly crude and misleading ...
How family issues, discrimination, and other social stressors age our immune systems and impact health
Social stress such as discrimination and family problems, along with job and money problems, can contribute to premature aging of ...
‘Special skills’: How dyslexia helped the human race survive
People with dyslexia have special skills that enabled our species to survive. They are better at solving problems and adapting ...
Human and octopus brains share key similarities
The octopus and human brain share similar transposons, or “jumping genes” – a type of genes that can move from ...
Viewpoint: Is science itself at the heart of infodemic plaguing ‘misinformation culture’?
It’s all too easy to make outsize claims that sidestep the process of peer review. Misinformation and disinformation often start ...
10 years old: CRISPR is revolutionizing medicine and agriculture, raising profound ethical questions
Ten years ago this week, Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues published the results of a test-tube experiment on bacterial genes ...
Gene-powered tiny robots could repair the body from the inside out
The development of human beings from fertilized eggs to an adult body is often described as a “genetic program”. Is ...
Are humans evolving and transforming by hybridizing with technology?
What may seem now to be obvious human traits will become less so as we grow progressively more integrated with ...
When CRISPR gene editing debuted ten years ago, almost nobody noticed
CRISPR/Cas9 is a transformative breakthrough for which two of its authors, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, were awarded the Nobel Prize ...
Exercise pill of the future? This molecule reduces body fat and regulates appetite in mice — but can it work for humans?
Exercise alters more than 9,800 molecules in your blood, a process that scientists have called a cellular “symphony.” ... But ...
A map of the human genome shows the function of every gene we know so far
The Human Genome Project was an ambitious initiative to sequence every piece of human DNA.... Now, over two decades later, ...
Bones found in the ‘cradle of civilization’ in South Africa date to as long as 3.7 million years ago, a million years older than previously thought
The earth doesn’t give up its secrets easily – not even in the “Cradle of Humankind” in South Africa, where ...
Single AI-informed brain scan can detect early Alzheimer’s
British scientists announced [June 20] that they have developed a machine-learning algorithm that can determine, with 98% accuracy, whether Alzheimer’s ...
Rethink your daily multivitamin: Most vitamin supplements likely useless at preventing cancer or strokes
There is not enough evidence to recommend for or against taking most vitamin and mineral supplements to prevent heart disease, ...
What’s the most effective way to convince unvaccinated people to get a shot? Funny memes
Pro-vaccination messaging may be surprisingly effective when delivered through humorous internet memes, according to new findings published in the journal ...
Medicine of the future: From high-tech health sensors to advanced gene therapy, here are the innovations we can expect in the decades ahead
What will the future of medicine look like? Will we manage to cure cancer? Will lab-grown organs render human donation ...
What is a species? New DNA analytic tools upend outdated neat categories
It’s clear to anyone that an African elephant and a garden snail are different species, but the lines blur around ...
Why are you less hungry after vigorous exercise? Credit the ‘anti-hunger molecule’
Scientists are calling it the “anti-hunger” molecule. New research shows that a compound induced by intense exercise travels to the ...
How genetics made dogs man’s best friend
You love your dog. Your dog loves you. Your love is the upshot of thousands of years – perhaps tens ...
Viewpoint: ‘Misuse, theft and discrimination’ — Here’s why it’s essential to keep your DNA data safe and private
Incredibly, by 2025, 60 million people in the United States alone will have had their DNA sequenced and analysed for ...
Where did the Black Death begin? DNA in ancient teeth provide clues
Researchers believe they have discovered the origins of the Black Death, more than 600 years after it killed tens of ...
Our middle ear may have evolved from fish gills
Embryonic and fossil evidence proves that the human middle ear evolved from the spiracle of fishes. However, the origin of ...
Headaches and genetics: If migraines are hereditary, what are possible solutions?
Chances are that you or someone you know experiences migraine—it is one of the most common health disorders in the ...
Can you groove to the beat — or are you an awkward dancer? It may be in your genes
Moving in time to musical rhythm is so automatic that people are often not conscious of the exquisite coordination that ...
Updated X-Files: Can implants and computers spur human evolution?
You’ve seen the advancements in the medical field in regard to thought-controlled prosthetics, right? If you haven’t, you should really ...
Viewpoint: ‘The true Charles Darwin was neither the atheist’s hero nor the fundamentalists’ parody’
Darwin was a convinced and convicted monogenist because his family, the Wedgewoods, were deeply devout Bible believers who supported and ...
‘Predicting the perfect embryo’? Another startup claims to help parents choose their ‘ideal’, disease-free baby. Does it work and what are the concerns?
Of course, [Rafal] Smigrodzki thinks his baby is special — most parents do. But Aurea is indeed unique. She was ...
