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.
How natural poison drove evolution of South American community
The Atacama Desert straddles the Andes Mountains, reaching into parts of Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. Little rain falls on ...
Microbiome study allows participants access to own data
The following excerpts are from Medium reporter Ernesto Ramirez's interview with Stanford University microbiome researcher Les Dethlefsen, whose Dynamics of Human ...
Lack of proven benefit highlights danger of genetic tests for cancer
Online ads for genetic cancer tests that promise to identify the best treatment “to kill your cancer” and match the ...
To begin to understand the brain, we need to first identify what we don’t know
In trying to brainstorm a list of unsolved problems in neuroscience, I read the a multitude of sources and asked ...
US Marines study finds link between PTSD and immune system
A new study of blood samples from US Marines has identified genetic markers associated with post-traumatic stress disorder that are ...
Nex-gen technologies expand sequencing options for doctors
Genetic data has gone the way of fast food: It's cheap, speedy, and widely available. And that's a good thing, ...
Egg-freezing advocates invoke fear to win patients
Mark Surrey, fertility specialist to the Kardashians, opens with the story of a 44-year-old lawyer who waited too long to ...
Evolution is weird: Killer diseases save lives and make us smarter?
Inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis, Tay-Sachs disease and certain breast cancers can kill you or make life very challenging. So why ...
Why touch is so important to emotional, physical wellbeing
Touch is the first of the senses to develop in the human infant, and it remains perhaps the most emotionally ...
No, tongue folding is not a genetic trait
Rolling your tongue is not a genetic trait. Most of the people reading this were told, at some point during ...
Why we should be concerned about antibiotic-resistant superbugs
Scientists and public-health officials are a careful bunch who don't often paint doomsday scenarios. That is, unless they're talking about ...
Tooth DNA reveals unknown origins of buried African slaves
Researchers have analyzed the DNA of ancient teeth to identify the regional origin of three African slaves buried more than ...
Is dancing success ‘in your genes’?
Dance may have evolved for a variety of reasons. To what degree are athletes hardwired? Can your moves on the ...
Who’s your daddy? You may be descended from Genghis Khan
Geneticists from the University of Leicester have discovered that millions of modern Asian men are descended from 11 powerful dynastic ...
Will gene therapy make humans masters of own evolution?
Human genetic engineering is not new; it has been going on for a long, long time — naturally. Ancient viruses ...
Nevada woman cleared of murder after three decades behind bars
Prosecutors in Nevada dropped a murder charge against a woman who spent more than three decades behind bars for the ...
After 150 years, Mendelian genetics still unchallenged by biology
Using the garden as a genetics laboratory, Gregor Mendel could manipulate and select for certain traits to formulate and test ...
Modern European languages traced to waves of migrating ancient Russian herders
New DNA evidence suggests that herders from the grasslands of today's Russia and Ukraine carried the roots of modern European ...
DNA storage techniques mimic Human Nature
Over the past few years, researchers at Harvard, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, ETH Zurich university, and ...
Gene therapy dilemma: Would you tweak your child’s genes if it might prolong life but leave her deaf?
New gene therapies can bring collateral consequences--solving one heath problem but creating another. Patients, healthcare providers and insurance companies are ...
Gene transfer therapy could replace vaccines, treat HIV
A team of scientists has announced what could prove to be an enormous step forward in the fight against H.I.V ...
Why does hair turn gray with age?
Saggy skin, (premature) wrinkles, and a stray or gray patch of hair are tell-tale signs of aging. A graying hairline ...
Injury-prone? Your genes might explain why
Injury is a fact of life for most athletes, but some professionals—and some weekend warriors, for that matter—just seem more ...
Why are we good to one another?
Altruism may seem a good thing—unless you happen to be an evolutionary biologist. Then it may seem a mixture of ...
Virginia to compensate victims of 20th-century eugenic sterilization program
Lawmakers in Virginia have agreed to pay compensation to people who were forcibly sterilized between 1927 and the early 1970s ...
Colorado biochemist Rob Knight on TED: Microbes make us who we are
Microbes, more than DNA, might explain why we're so different from one another. At least that's what biochemist Rob Knight ...
We have the technology to make bionic hands
Bionic hands and other limbs are not futuristic hopes. Three people already have bionic hands that have been attached surgically ...
