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.
Eating extra portions of salmon, beans and brown rice for protection from vitamin B1 deficiency? Here’s why it might not protect you from starving your brain
Scientists from EMBL Hamburg and CSSB have uncovered the molecular mechanisms behind how the body absorbs vitamin B1, potentially leading ...
How does our brain produce actions and thoughts?
The massive networks of neurons in our brains produce complex behaviors, like actions and thought. Now physicists want to understand ...
Longevity expert says tinkering with the aging process won’t help you live longer
“We don’t have an ageing intervention yet,” says [Dr Stuart Jay Olshansky] ... The only way humans are going to ...
We all bear the consequences of Neanderthal and Denisovan promiscuity
For much of our history, we coexisted with other members of our genus, and our prehistoric ancestors didn’t waste the ...
AI will influence human evolution. Here’s how
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more common and sophisticated, its effects on human lives and societies raises new questions. A ...
Excuse for eating dessert? Is your sweet tooth genetically determined?
New research has found that people with a genetic defect in their ability to digest sucrose eat less cake, sweets, ...
Viewpoint: Scientific American editor Laura Helmuth notorius for putting woke ideology ahead of science resigns under a cloud after a rant against Donald Trump
When magazines like Scientific American are run by ideologues producing biased dreck, it only makes it more difficult to defend ...
A.L. 288-1, better known as Lucy, was unearthed 50 years ago. Here is how a pile of bones reshaped our knowledge of human evolution
In 1974, researchers unearthed fossil AL 288-1, more commonly known as “Lucy”, in a 3.2-million-year-old deposit in the Hadar region of ...
Meet Daisy: The AI grandmother who is fighting back against scammers
AI-generated UK grandmother named “Daisy” is [making] scammers’ jobs a bit more tedious.... Using ChatGPT-like large language models, Daisy will ...
Born athletes? Identical twin studies show the balance of genetics vs training
[A] new study finds that, of all fitness domains, flexibility is the one most determined by your genes. The study, ...
The queasy possibility that humans and AI could ‘evolve’ in tandem
For the sake of engaging in a wholehearted discussion, assume that AI is evolving.... We then have these two ideas ...
Clinical trials involving animals can have a 99.6% failure rate in some instances sparking researchers to find alternatives
Animal-based studies have contributed to important findings and lifesaving medical advancements. The COVID-19 vaccines, for instance, were developed in animals, ...
Does eating ultra-processed foods speed up aging?
Ultra-processed foods have been associated with poor nutritional quality and potential health risks. Now, a new study suggests that high ...
Viewpoint: Overhauling the teaching of genetics is necessary to eliminate the concept of race
On a lengthy bus ride in the early 1970s, University of Chicago geneticist Richard Lewontin passed the time by doing some novel math ...
If humanity goes extinct, this is the likeliest creature to ascend and become the next civilization builder
Professor Tim Coulson, a leading zoologist and biologist at the University of Oxford, suggested that octopuses could evolve into the ...
Will 23andMe survive after the ancestral data leak fiasco?
The genetic testing firm 23andMe said on Monday it would cut about 40%, or 200 employees, from its workforce and ...
In rare cases, coming down with COVID-19 could save your life
Viruses don’t often come with silver linings, and infections don’t generally lead to positive health effects. But during the pandemic, ...
25% reduction: People genetically prone to breast cancer, diabetes and other diseases would benefit from gene screening
A simple genetic screening test has the potential to stop almost a quarter of premature preventable deaths from common diseases ...
Pong addict? You should take a shot at playing a human created lifeless blob—that gets better over time
Inspired by recent advancements in brain organoid systems, researchers have designed a simple hydrogel-electrode array that not only can “play” Pong, but ...
Should women who use hormonal IUDs be concerned about developing cancer?
A new Danish study shows that women who use hormonal IUDs may have a higher risk of developing breast cancer, ...
Why are women more likely to get long-Covid than men?
Long COVID can cause substantial economic loss and missed days of work, and it can strike women more often than ...
Just in case: If humans near extinction, a 5-D ‘memory crystal’ might revive us
Researchers have encoded the entire human genome onto a “5D memory crystal” in the off chance our species finds itself ...
‘I feel like it’s a little bit of health marketing bullshit’: Exosomes might not help you stay young but they might have other science benefits
Any cell biologist ... will tell you what exosomes really are: tiny little blobs that bud off from cells and ...
Colorado Governor Jared Polis shocks health officials, endorses DJT’s pick of RFK, Jr. as Health and Human Services director
The Democratic governor said he was “excited” by Trump’s nomination, despite Polis touting the day before the creation of the Governors ...
Obesity rates in America are plateauing but skepticism remains that it is a sustainable trend
According to the CDC, as of August 2023, 40.3 percent of U.S. adults—some 100 million people—met the clinical definition for ...
Viewpoint: Ideological anti-race scientist claims ‘American tech money is fueling a resurgence or ‘race science’
“Civilisation is going to pieces … if we don’t look out the white race will be – will be utterly ...
Inside the ‘minds’ of AI companions: Uncensored programs bring mimic human-like conversations
In September, OpenAI unveiled an ambitious new language model capable of working through challenging problems with a simulated kind of ...
