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.
Do people with artificial limbs come to see their prostheses as a natural part of the body — or just a tool?
[How do] humans’ wealth of sensory inputs—including the touch and visual perception involved in manipulating a tool—modify the sense of ...
‘Young blood’: Here’s how a plasma infusion could ward off bone brittleness, increase lifespan and reverse aspects of aging
[I]n the past two decades, the idea of blood as an elixir of youth has leapt from the pages of ...
Viewpoint: Conspiracy theories used to be the province of harmless ‘Bigfoot hunters’. Now they’re dangerous and deadly
In 2021, conspiracy theories are no longer a source of amusement, nor are leading purveyors mere harmless weirdos. What was ...
Chronic pain is a pain: How gene editing offers hopeful alternative to addictive opioids
Chronic pain—defined as pain that persists for longer than 12 weeks despite medication or treatment—is estimated to affect some 20 ...
Cappuccino or espresso? How genetics actively regulates the amount of coffee we regularly drink
Whether you hanker for a hard hit of caffeine or favor the frothiness of a milky cappuccino, your regular coffee ...
Dangerously high cholesterol? CRISPR gene editing could lower it, tests on monkeys suggest
A team of researchers from Verve Therapeutics and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has developed ...
Brain scans show how LSD works to unlock the brain and treat depression
By comparing scans of the brain on LSD versus placebo… researchers found that the drug reduced the amount of energy ...
Hairy oddballs: Why are humans the only animal to grow hair on our heads but almost none on our bodies?
Fur keeps animals warm when it's cold at night and protects them from the sun during the day. Human ancestors ...
Podcast: Is laughter unique to humans? No, other animals evolved the same play behavior. Here are some examples
[HOST MICHAEL MARTIN:] It's true, we all laugh. But is laughter, uniquely human? It turns out, not really. Plenty of ...
For decades, scientists struggled to find a treatment for one of the most common lung cancer mutations. Amgen has won US approval for the first drug targeting the KRAS variant
[A new] drug, called Lumakras, was approved [May 28] to treat a portion of lung cancer patients with a particular ...
Aquaplastic derived from E. coli confronts the plastic waste crisis? Made from gut bacteria, this genetically engineered biodegradable material completely dissolves in 45 days
Using genetically engineered E. coli, scientists from Northeastern University, Harvard, Johns Hopkins and elsewhere say they turned E. coli into ...
‘It would be huge to see my granddaughter’: In an attempt to cure blindness, scientists use CRISPR to edit DNA inside patients’ bodies
Carlene Knight would love to do things that most people take for granted, such as read books, drive a car, ...
Viewpoint: Do people gain weight because of genes or personal choices? Here’s why the answer is so complex
More than 40 percent of adults in the United States qualify as obese, and an elevated body mass index has ...
Evolution of creativity: An emerging theory of why Neanderthals succumbed to more ‘advanced’ Homo sapiens
Theories regarding the extinction of the Neanderthals range from climate change or the homo sapiens outpacing them in terms of ...
Fact checking ancient Greek history: Teeth recovered from military gravesites contradict historical beliefs that no mercenaries were deployed in battles
Ancient historians loved to write about warfare and famous battles. While these millennia-old stories still feed modern imaginations – Homer’s ...
Ecological engineering: We could save endangered wildlife and fight pest-spreading diseases using cloning and gene editing. Should we?
[Endangered black-footed ferrets] are especially susceptible to plague. While many of us have not given much thought to plague since ...
9 archaeological finds that have reshaped our views of human evolution
Here are nine of the most revealing discoveries that have changed our understanding of our early ancestors—and ourselves. ... 2 ...
‘Optogenetics’ miracle? Gene therapy and high-tech goggles partially restore sight to man blinded for 40 years
[A new gene therapy to treat blindness] relies on something called optogenetics. The idea is to edit nerve cells collected ...
Did ‘global cooling’ push multiple lines of early humans into extinction, paving way for Homo sapiens?
Modern humans, called Homo sapiens, are part of the genus Homo, which has existed for at least 2.8 million years ...
Ancient poop could save lives: ‘Exquisitely preserved’ lost microbes discovered in 2,000-year old feces could help battle chronic illnesses
Previous research has made a connection between preindustrial diets, greater diversity in the gut microbiome and lower rates of chronic ...
Can you stall Alzheimer’s and memory loss? Nutrient-dense Mediterranean diet could help, mounting evidence suggests
Meals inspired by traditional foods from the sunny Mediterranean, a new study found, may lower your risk for dementia by ...
Is the clock ticking for the human race?
At a recent lecture to Harvard alumni I was asked how long I expect our technological civilization to survive. My ...
Assisant Health Secretary Rachel Levine sets trail-blazing path: How the highest-ranking openly transgender person to serve in the federal government has navigated her first months in office
Dr. [Rachel] Levine, a former Pennsylvania health secretary, is now President Biden’s assistant secretary for health, the first openly transgender ...
Are human brains the evolved pinnacle of problem-solving evolution? The reality may be more mundane
People often assume that evolution has progressed in an upward trajectory, from simple organisms to more complex ones. Because humans ...
‘Mindwriting’: Paralyzed clinical trial patient with brain implant able to ‘type’ words by thinking about writing by hand
Call it “mindwriting.” The combination of mental effort and state-of-the-art technology have allowed a man with spinal injury and immobilized ...
‘Gene Conservation Units’ may be key to preserving rare species — and maintaining evolutionary processes to help them adapt to environmental change
UK landowners and conservationists welcome wider-spread use of Gene Conservation Units (GCUs) to help protect some of the rarest plants ...
‘Humans developed complex belief systems around death’: 78,000-year old gravesite marks oldest human burial in Africa
Archaeologists have identified the oldest known human burial in Africa during field work that uncovered the remains of a child ...
