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.
Systemic racism hurts minorities in accessing human eggs and donors
"Eggonomics: The Global Market in Human Eggs and the Donors Who Supply Them," a new book by University of Alabama ...
Viewpoint: ‘Fake science’ and ‘conspiracy theories’ likely if Trump wins and appoints RFK, Jr. ‘health czar’
“I’m going to be deeply involved in helping to choose the people who can run F.D.A. and N.I.H. and C.D.C.,” ...
How Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” inspired today’s misplaced chemophobia and endangers public health
[C]hemophobia has roots in the heart of the modern environmental movement. [In] 1962, biologist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, a book ...
Brain-tracking headphones can improve focus but they raise privacy concerns
Activity trackers have come a long way. No longer mere step-counters, they can monitor your heart rate, blood oxygen level, and ...
Viewpoint: What do social conservatives really believe about IVF?
[S]eemingly stung by Kamala Harris’s assertion that IVF treatments have been curtailed “under Donald Trump’s abortion bans,” the former Republican ...
In the age of gene therapy, what does ‘being cured’ mean?
Gene therapy comes with the expectation that it will “cure” an expanding number of genetic disorders. If you’ve never wondered ...
Do we need to regulate testosterone clinics?
Nowadays, men in their 40s ... are constantly being urged to get their testosterone levels checked, as private clinics and ...
Calorie dense beverages are exceeding what our bodies have evolved to handle
Humans started drinking the equivalent of very, very light beer 13,000 years ago. And we may have consumed milk from livestock as ...
Voice cracks and menstruation periods: What was maturation like for ancient teenagers
Landmark new research shows Ice Age teens from 25,000 years ago went through similar puberty stages as modern-day adolescents. In ...
Avian flu on US farms could remain forever. Here’s what that may mean for human health
Bird flu has been spreading in dairy cows in the US—and the scale of the spread is likely to be ...
Book excerpt: What’s the evolutionary role of the placenta, the only organ that humans shed completely
"Human evolution has occurred both due to, and in spite of, the placenta. Every pregnancy, unthinkingly, must navigate a careful ...
Can the delayed evolution of humans on Earth help explain why we have not been visited by aliens?
[T]he Earth is 4.6 billion years old, and life began about 4 billion years ago, yet humans—the only intelligent, technological ...
Viewpoint: ‘There is no solid evidence’: ADHD diagnoses are on the rise, but the science evidence suggests it’s probably a statistical artifact
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most commonly diagnosed neurodevelopment disorders and seems to be on the rise, in ...
COVID took a toll on teenage victims? Can we fix them?
Research has shown that the pandemic exacerbated teen mental health issues, as the lockdown severed connections between young people at the most critical ...
Why do many women develop postnatal depression? Brain scans can now help us understand
Pregnancy brain really does exist, according to one of the first detailed maps of human-brain changes before, during and after ...
Can chatbots be tailored to fight back against conspiracy theories?
[R]esearchers believe they’ve uncovered a new tool for combating false conspiracy theories: AI chatbots. Researchers from MIT Sloan and Cornell ...
The threat of biological conflict is rising. Are we prepared?
The coronavirus, [Roger Brent (professor of basic sciences), T. Greg McKelvey Jr. (adviser to the Rand think tank) and Jason ...
Advanced voice mode: Latest AI innovation makes it more human-like but with cultural ramifications
If you’re a paid subscriber to ChatGPT, you may have noticed the artificial intelligence (AI) large language model has recently ...
Can’t get your child to eat their vegetables? Maybe it’s genetic
Parents are not to blame for "fussy eating", researchers say, as a large study suggests fussy eating tendencies are mostly ...
Can household products induce early puberty? Study raises questions
Girls exposed to certain chemicals that are common ingredients in household products may be starting puberty comparatively early, a new ...
Alexa, read my mind: Brain implant in development for paralyzed test patients can surf the internet and manage emails
Synchron is one of several companies, including Elon Musk’s Neuralink, aiming to commercialize [brain-computer interface, or BCI's]. Researchers have been studying ...
Louisiana’s classification of abortion pills as ‘controlled dangerous substances’ signals further anti-abortion restrictions likely in other conservative states
Staff in some Louisiana hospitals are doing timed drills, sprinting from patient rooms and through halls to the locked medicine ...
Sustainable mining: How plants can be deployed as ‘phytominers’ to suck up valuable minerals
Nickel may not grow on trees—but there’s a chance it could someday be mined using plants. Many plant species naturally ...
‘It can happen in just a few generations’: These animals are evolving fastest
Evolution occurs over millennia, but it can also happen in just a few generations. ... "I don't know if any particular ...
‘Purging corrupt influences’: Anti-vax conspiracist RFK, Jr. claims Trump has designated him to select leaders of FDA, NIH and CDC
[Robert F Kennedy Jr.], who abandoned his independent bid for the presidency to join Trump’s transition team in late August, alongside ...
First-ever national surveillance system finds 5.4 million Medicare recipients have Alzheimer’s
More than 5.4 million Medicare recipients likely have Alzheimer's or another type of dementia, according to researchers developing a first-ever national surveillance system ...
In the fight against opioid addiction, a newly developed fentanyl vaccine may be the latest weapon. Could it make a difference?
A research team led by the University of Houston has developed a vaccine targeting the dangerous synthetic opioid fentanyl that ...
