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.
New app will let doctors review patients’ genome for cancer treatment
Patrick Soon-Shiong, the richest doctor in the world, and Blackberry Chief Executive John Chen made some news at Thursday’s Forbes ...
Seeing dragons? Woman’s strange condition that baffled neurologists
Here’s the medical case report in The Lancet: Prosopometamorphopsia and facial hallucinations from a team of researchers including the famous Oliver Sacks ...
Couple uses IVF to have baby girl, raising questions on ethics of sex selection
Ever heard of “gender disappointment”? Jayne and Jon Cornwill certainly have. It’s what drove the Australian couple to mortgage their ...
Early theories on evolution weren’t all spot-on
Darwin's era was not the first time that people began wondering where humans come from. Throughout history the debate is ...
Viking men didn’t travel alone: Norsewomen helped colonize new lands, too
Vikings may have been family men who traveled with their wives to new lands, according to a new study of ...
Smokers with Y chromosome at especially high risk for developing cancer
Here's another reason for men to quit smoking. Aside from the well-known dramatic increase it causes in the risk of ...
More US clinics offering stem cell therapy, but is it safe?
Plastic surgeons, other doctors and naturopaths at more than 100 clinics round the country are charging thousands of dollars for ...
DNA test that tells identical twins apart to be used in forensic testing
In 2004, two young women were abducted at gunpoint while walking home near Boston at night. The crimes happened eight ...
Personal genomics and gene editing revolutions beg for global regulatory rethink
The scientific impact of personalized genome editing is easy to imagine: Designer babies, lab grown meat and the end of ...
DNA of Niemann-Pick disease victims might offer clues in finding Ebola cure
Niemann-Pick is a debilitating disease that retards movement and development of an infants ability to think and reason, as if ...
Bill Nye on why evolution denialism persists
More than two in five Americans believe that God created human beings in essentially their current form within the last ...
Warrior genes? Genetic screens for “evil” traits likely to remain science fiction, at least for now
The idea that people who are might commit a crime can be identified in advance of any wrong doing has ...
Laboratories race to advance CRISPR research in spite of patent dispute
Last month in Silicon Valley, biologists Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier showed up in black gowns to receive the $3 ...
Has the Human Genome Project lived up to hype?
Just taking some notes here - relates to a discussion going on online. Would love pointers to other references relating ...
Researchers challenge prominent theory on link between psychiatric disorders and genes
An important new study could undermine the concept of ‘endophenotypes’ – and thus derail one of the most promising lines ...
Receiving a genome screening for cancer risk as an Ashkenazi Jew
Rarely could I be described in a headline in The New York Times, which explains why I lingered over one ...
How questions of racial, sexist bigotry have come to overshadow James Watson’s career
I’m thrilled that Christie’s decided to auction off James Watson’s Nobel prize on a Thursday, DNA Science posting day! I’ve got some ...
Too many directions in Ebola research could hinder search for cure
When it comes to treatments for Ebola, there has been a nearly four-decade-long drought. Nothing in the medical arsenal attacks ...
How important is height in attracting a potential partner?
Before I started researching height differences in heterosexual couples, I held two assumptions that you might share: Men tend to ...
Targeting children based on genetics would do more harm than good
In “The Downside of Resilience” (Sunday Review, Nov. 30), Jay Belsky points to evidence that certain children are genetically predisposed ...
Progress and promises of immunotherapy in cancer treatment
’s stomach ached. The New York City teacher had been drinking cup after cup of coffee as he labored to ...
New York court rejects granting legal personhood to chimpanzees
Advocates of “legal personhood” to chimpanzees have lost another battle. This morning, a New York appellate court rejected a lawsuit ...
Glyphosate used with GMO crops under attack for disrupting microbiome: Science or a gut feeling?
Despite professional science and health organizations such as the American Medical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science ...
Couples can protect children from devastating mutations with new IVF methods
IVF clinics are moving beyond chromosome counting to offer families a more in-depth genetic analysis of embryos before implantation. This ...
Climate change, tourism threaten species conservation in Galápagos Islands
Unesco calls the Galápagos Islands a “living museum and showcase of evolution,” but they are much more than that. The ...
Mice with human brain cells smarter than peers
What would Stuart Little make of it? Mice have been created whose brains are half human. As a result, the ...
UK approves 23andMe test banned in US
The UK's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) says the 23andMe spit test, which is designed to give details ...
