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.
Viewpoint: Revisiting the debate over genes and IQ
In The Bell Curve, Murray and Herrnstein argue that intelligence, as measured by an IQ score, is a crucial determinant of ...
With gene editing revolutionizing health care, parents of children with orphan diseases ask: ‘What about our kids?’
For families of the pediatric rare disease community, headlines drive elevated hope and excitement. But they also lead to heightened ...
‘The Arrogant Ape’: A takedown of the human supremacy complex
In the grand story of evolution, the crowning human distinction is our big brain. But our large heads have been ...
More than half of Americans take supplements. That’s becoming a health problem
At a time when Americans are buying and taking record amounts of supplements — well over half of adults consume one — ...
There may be a genetic reason why more women than men suffer from depression
Women are genetically at higher risk of clinical depression than men, Australian researchers found in a study published ... that could change how ...
Gay and lesbian conversion therapy: The Supreme Court is debating its legal future. What is it?
As a teenager, Julie Rodgers attended Tuesday night group therapy sessions in which young people confessed their same-sex transgressions: anal ...
MAGA delusion: Republicans far more likely than Democrats and independents to believe Trump and RFK, Jr.’s false claim that tylenol use can cause autism
While few adults across partisanship think that it is “definitely true” that taking Tylenol during pregnancy increases the risk of ...
Dump BMI? Where fat is stored in the body may matter more than how much there is overall
At first glance, a BMI chart seems pretty straightforward. But researchers are discovering that where fat is stored in the ...
Key to ocean life, coral reefs are disappearing on the way to extinction. Should we mobilize gene editing to save a threatened species?
Coral reefs are fundamental to the health of our oceans. They cover less than 1% of the Earth’s ocean, but ...
Skin cells can now be used to fertilize eggs
Human eggs made from a volunteer’s skin DNA were fertilized in the lab on September 30, 2025, and some grew ...
A liver extracted from a genetically modified pig transplanted into a 71-year-old man
Surgeons in China have for the first time transplanted a section of liver extracted from a genetically modified pig into ...
Dystopian future? Should the wealthy be able to use AI to hardwire physical or cognitive advantages into their genomes
It is quite possible that the most immediate threat AI poses to humanity is not that its superhuman intelligence will ...
Male Gen Zers’ rejection of reason: ‘Science can slide into conspiracy-tinged mazes rooted in misinformation’
After 30 years as a researcher, science communicator and university science teacher, I’ve been unsettled by what appears to be ...
Book review: When Everyone Knows that Everyone Knows—Stephen on ‘common knowledge’
Common knowledge is something everyone knows that everyone knows. He saw it. She saw it. He knows that she saw ...
How badly will a long government shutdown impact science?
Threats of federal shutdowns have become routine in the past decade, but this closure could be different: US President Donald Trump’s administration ...
Infertility breakthrough: AI can identify the fastest swimming sperm and then a robot plants it into the embryo
In-vitro fertilization has produced more than 13 million babies since its inception in the late 1970s, but it remains a highly manual ...
‘Gene-edited sheep’ are a hot commodity on the black market
The way the federal agents swarmed Jack Schubarth’s ranch in Montana on a late-spring day in 2021, it seemed they ...
As the length of winters continues to get shorter, it screws around with animal instincts and many get confused
"In Norway, we know very well that winters are getting shorter. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute has been collecting measurements across ...
Determining your ‘biological age’: Helpful information or longevity scam
You get older every day. But how old are your cells and organs, really? ... Biological age and chronological age ...
Why do so many rightwing leaders question the science supporting climate change?
"Climate policy and climate research are under heavy attack from the Trump administration," Håkon Sælen recently said at the Cicero ...
How the brain gets thirsty before the body even notices
To understand thirst in mammals, think of it less as the body stating a fact to the brain—“I need water”—and ...
“Y” do women outlive men?
Women tend to live longer than men. There are traditional explanations: Men smoke more. They drink more. They tend to ...
What’s the difference between human intelligence and AI? Not very much
The term artificial intelligence renders the sense that what computers do is either inferior to or at least apart from ...
Nearly 30 minutes. That’s the new world record for holding one’s breath under water. Here is how he did it
Vitomir Maričić is one of the world's best freedivers. And this summer he set a new world record: He held ...
Robot wars: Here’s why the simmering feud between Musk and Zuckerberg could move from orange to red
When Mark Zuckerberg walked on stage ... with those chunky black AI glasses, some viewed a possible future rival for the Apple iPhone. Others, however, ...
What critical drugs are next on RFK, Jr.’s hitlist?
For years, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has railed against a number of medications and therapeutics claiming without scientific consensus or ...
Strength, power, and high-intensity training: How much do creatine supplements help
It's arguably one of the world's most researched supplements. Thousands of studies have been carried out over the past few ...
