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.
A rabbi and an alien walk into a bar: What happens when religious leaders meet extraterrestrials?
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) presents a challenge for the major religions, who might find themselves threatened if alien ...
Cripr-Cas9 DNA editing opens world of possibilities—and Pandora’s box
Crispr-Cas9 makes it easy, cheap, and fast to move genes around—any genes, in any living thing, from bacteria to people ...
Is editing RNA the key to prolonging life?
If someone was going to attempt to stop aging, what would be the first step? Researchers at the Center for ...
US genetic health studies fail to accurately represent country’s ethnic makeup
The clock is ticking for experts charged with designing a U.S. government programme to collect genetic, physiological and other health ...
What did the first humans to leave Africa look like?
The most comprehensive dataset ever assembled on our early human ancestors provides evidence that the first humans emerged in South ...
Water: California drought yet water bottles everywhere
Humanity's future depends on how we manage our interactions with water. This takes the form of how we package it, ...
Amazonians distant cousins of Australasians through ancient genetic link
Some people in the Brazilian Amazon are very distant relations of indigenous Australians, New Guineans and other Australasians, two groups ...
Genome’s most confusing features a lot more fun when explained through art
How can cells that contain the same DNA end up so different from each other? That is not only a ...
Some stem cell clinics offer costly, unproven procedures, in US and abroad
Stem cell treatments of various kinds are now widely available in America at more than 100 stem cell clinics offering ...
Can anything be done to stop the growing threat of antibiotic resistance?
Matt Cooper, a medical chemist at the University of Queensland, Australia, puffs out his cheeks and scratches his head. He’s ...
There’s no ‘warrior gene’…but there may be a warrior genotype
I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but you don’t have a gene for being tall, or a gene for caffeine ...
Insatiable sweet tooth? Blame genetics
According to a new study published in the journal Twin Research and Human Genetics, nearly one-third of our ability to taste sweetness comes from ...
Dogs love TV? Our canine partners have evolved human-like traits
It's likely no surprise to dog owners, but growing research suggests that man's best friend often acts more human than ...
“The Vital Question” book explores evolutionary origins of life
How did rocks, air and water coalesce into the first living creatures on the primordial Earth? Why did complex life like ...
20th century eugenists guided women on selecting perfect mate
For American women in the early twentieth century, marriage was a dangerous affair. Upon her marriage, a woman’s civic and ...
Synthetic components added to DNA expand genetic alphabet
DNA stores our genetic code in an elegant double helix. But some argue that this elegance is overrated. “DNA as a ...
Pseudoscience appropriates ‘epigenetics’ with promise of life-changing cures
Lots of real scientific terms – such as “neuro” or “nano” – get borrowed for a spot of buzzword scienceyness. Epigenetics is ...
Neuroscience of free will: Does reaching for beer with robotic arm mean free will doesn’t exist?
If we can predict a person’s intentions by picking up brain signals then how 'free' is our will and are ...
Ancestry following 23andMe into consumer genetics business
With the launch of its AncestryHealth website, Ancestry continues to play Microsoft to 23andMe’s Apple. It may not be as ...
Apes, like humans, show bias towards positive spin
Are you likelier to buy an expensive diet pill when you hear it has helped 40 percent of people or ...
Kissing around the world: How do different cultures show intimacy?
Not all people express love and adoration through their lips. In fact, new research published in American Anthropologist reports that only 46 percent of cultures kiss ...
Sex chromosomes get messy when they swap DNA
Variety is the spice of life—especially when it comes to genetics. Our species needs DNA to intermingle to create genetic ...
Can gene editing preserve line between medicine and eugenics?
CRISPR is the latest chapter in a long, darkly comic history of human genetic improvement. Like whole-gene engineering in the ...
How some people can ‘see’ music in color
Suppose you’re at a concert with a friend who leans over and whispers in your ear, “What color was that ...
Sci-fi drama ‘Sense8’ explores transhumanism in positive light
The defining scene of “Sense8,” the new sci-fi drama on Netflix, comes about halfway through the first season. It starts ...
What are the genes behind celiac disease inheritance?
The growing list of genetic diseases and disorders that are associated with the heterozygote advantage has led many researchers to ...
Does epigenetics give credibility to placebo effect and mind’s healing powers?
In 2008, the National Institutes of Health announced that $190 million had been earmarked for epigenetics research over the following ...
