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.
Humans struggle to identify odors despite acute sense of smell
In most mammals, olfaction is dominant. Smell uses a large portion of their brains, and aroma receptors are encoded by ...
Rat study sheds light on question of human ‘free will’
New research on the neural basis of ‘spontaneous’ actions in rats could shed light on the philosophical mystery that is ...
Human obesity and livestock growth: Are antibiotics the link?
Patients often request and use antibiotics thinking they have no long-term effects of the medications. But work on the human ...
Are breast cancer screenings always beneficial?
Breast screening in the UK is at the centre of renewed controversy after an influential group of British MPs called ...
What gave rise to tool use among primates?
Primates use all kinds of tools in the wild to acquire food resources. For example, chimpanzees use stones to crack ...
Profile of a personal genetics company: PHENOMBio
Interest in personal genomics sites that provide insight into the link between your genes and disease proclivities is booming. But ...
Gene variant may be linked to better memory, protection against Alzheimer’s
People with a newly identified genetic variant perform better on certain types of memory tests, a discovery that may point ...
Yellow fever mosquitoes’ genes pick up human odor
The yellow fever mosquito sustains its taste for human blood thanks to a genetic tweak that makes it more sensitive ...
Creativity more imitation than innovation
In today’s world, inventors are our heroes and our saviours – the geniuses who keep the world economy surging forward, ...
Cost benefits of cancer screenings get political in the UK
Cancer screening have helped save many of lives, but have shifted the demographics of who gets the disease. Should we ...
Stem cells, CRISPR/Cas9 explored for possible HIV treatment
“Berlin Patient” Timothy Brown was cured of HIV after he received stem cells from a patient naturally immune to the ...
Contamination of DNA samples by microbes confounds
You’ve got a group of people with a mysterious disease, and you suspect that some microbe might be responsible. You ...
In Ebola drug trials, who receives treatment?
With clinical trials of experimental Ebola treatments set to begin in December, public-health officials face a major ethical quandary: should ...
What brain science has and has not revealed, so far
Research on the brain is surging. The United States and the European Union have launched new programs to better understand ...
Device allows people to alter mouse genes through mind control
Scientists have created a mind-control system that allows a person to alter the genes in a mouse through the power ...
Fatal Retraction: Downside of early cancer detection
Google recently promised to develop early-detection technology for cancer, heart disease and strokes. While early diagnosis might seem like a ...
Food Babe flops on BRCA mutations: Understand genetics or go home
Charlatans like Food Babe, Dr. Oz, Joseph Mercola, and Vandana Shiva represent everything disgraceful about unscientific propaganda. Cancer misinformation is ...
EO Wilson, Richard Dawkins renew clash over evolution
The war of words between the biologists EO Wilson and Richard Dawkins has reignited after the Harvard professor described his ...
Google to start offering DNA tests to employees with cancer
Google will soon start covering the cost of Foundation Medicine's DNA tests for employees and their family-members suffering from cancer, ...
Embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells both carry similar DNA mutations
A team led by New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute scientists conducted a study comparing induced pluripotent stem ...
Newly discovered ancient human skeleton contains lost Neanderthal DNA
Another week, another ancient human genome. We just recently covered the oldest modern human genome yet described. Now, another paper ...
Is oxytocin really the ‘love hormone’? Maybe not, says new study
I'm writing a new textbook on introductory statistics, and I decided to include an example based on Paul Zak's intriguing ...
Can scientists derive a cure for Ebola from blood of survivors?
A group of scientists including three Nobel laureates in medicine has proposed that U.S. health officials chart a new path ...
Dangers of over-diagnosing a disease
Historically, the science of epidemiology was directed toward identifying and controlling epidemics of infectious disease. In a study just published ...
For brain damaged man, smartphone is prosthetic memory device
You wouldn't guess from having a face-to-face conversation with Dixon that his brain is damaged. That's because nothing about his ...
UK Parliament votes to ban abortion on basis of sex
MPs have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a motion declaring that sex-selection abortion is illegal. They voted 181 to 1 ...
How much does the public actually care about brain science?
It feels to me like interest in the brain has exploded. I’ve seen huge investments in brain science by the ...
