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.
70% of gambling behavior may be driven by genes. A new genetic test may show whether you’re at risk
Studies have shown that our genes may be up to 70% responsible for gambling behavior. Now a new genetic test ...
Does TikTok and other social media adversely affect kids’ brains? We still don’t know
The relative newness of platforms like Snapchat and TikTok means little research is available about their long-term effects on teen ...
Human evolution may have more to do with genetic material we lost from our primate ancestors than what we gained
A new study explores the significance of the genetic information absent in the human genome compared to other primates ...
Viewpoint: Yes, we have a national mental health crisis. No, it’s not a significant driver of gun violence as Republicans claim
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wants more mental health resources after the Allen mall mass shooting. It’s not a real solution ...
Viewpoint: Pandemic tribalism — Why shreds of COVID origin evidence are hailed by some as incontrovertible proof
Over the past year, we’ve been treated to a series of lab-leak news cycles prompted by vague intelligence reports and ...
A flash of intense consciousness after breathing stops, but before a person dies? What’s happening?
In their last minutes of life, some people's brains generate a surge of surprisingly organized-looking electrical activity that may reflect ...
‘Groundbreaking IVF procedure’: First three-parent baby born in the UK through mitochondrial donation treatment
The first UK baby created with DNA from three people has been born after doctors performed a groundbreaking IVF procedure ...
‘Enforcers and regulators must be vigilant’: Federal Trade Commission Chair outlines strong AI regulations
The full extent of generative A.I.’s potential is still up for debate, but there’s little doubt it will be highly ...
Longer chromosome telomeres mean longer life? The truth may be just the opposite
The longer a person’s telomeres, researchers found, the greater the risk of cancer and other disorders, challenging a popular hypothesis ...
Viewpoint: Abortion has nothing to do with eugenics. Pro-life activists need to stop equating them
Among the dubious points that U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk makes in his recent ruling suspending the Food and Drug Administration’s ...
Anxiety-suppressing ‘chill pill’ could target source of stress in the brain
Scientists have discovered a brain gene linked to anxiety symptoms, offering a potential new drug target. They found that a ...
Why are there so few insects in the world’s oceans?
Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have proposed a hypothesis for why insects are so rare in marine environments ...
World Health Organization and pseudoscience: Foremost global health authority promotes homeopathy and ‘rhythmical embrocations’
In trying to ensure everyone has access to healthcare, the WHO promotes homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, and rhythmical embrocations ...
Is ADHD a genetic condition, illness, natural neurodiversity of humanity, or ‘super power’? People with ADHD weigh in
ADHD is highly hereditary and scientists are examining other risk factors, including brain injuries and exposure to toxins such as ...
Researchers expanded lifespan of yeast by 80% with a simple genetic tweak. Could this work in humans too?
Human lifespans have increased throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, but those increases are slowing down ...
Eugenics exists today — and it’s a movement of the left and the right
Eugenics declined after Nazi Germany collapsed in 1945 but did not disappear. Instead, it changed priorities ...
Viewpoint: ‘This advance will increase productivity but also supercharge dislocation’ — How AI could destabilize democracy
The field of technology is convulsed by a debate about whether we have reached the Age of AGI...in which technology ...
Is it possible to read minds with brain scans?
Like Dumbledore’s wand, a scan can pull long strings of stories straight out of a person’s brain — but only ...
Precision medicine and pharmacogenetics: Here’s why certain drugs work better for some people than others
UCSF soon will start a genetic testing program for patients, believed to be the first of its kind in California ...
Could there be health benefits to delaying or preventing menopause through medical intervention?
The new science of the menopause: The 'change' is a turning point in women's lives that we still don't fully ...
How blinking contributed to human evolution
Researchers investigated the reasons behind the mudskipper’s blinking behavior by considering the roles that blinking plays in humans ...
This company adopted AI. Here’s what happened to its human workers
Companies like OpenAI and Google have unveiled new Artificial Intelligence systems with incredible capabilities ...
Slowing the advance of Alzheimer’s: Lilly’s donanemab joins lecanemab as drugs shown to limit beta amyloid plaque buildup in brains
We could be entering the era of Alzheimer's treatments, after the second drug in under a year has been shown ...
Human Genome Project was completed 20 years ago. Here’s how it has revolutionized science
For the 20-year anniversary of this historic event, we took a look back at the Human Genome Project and its impact ...
AI medical assistants? ChatGPT answers patient questions with more empathy than human doctors
There has been widespread speculation about how advances in artificial intelligence (AI) assistants like ChatGPT could be used in medicine. ...
The Fighting Hypothesis: An evolutionary explanation for fewer lefthanders — and why their share of the population could increase
A violent theory explains why most people are right-handed: Left-handed humans were likelier to get stabbed in the heart ...
Human age limit: Are supercentenarians simply statistical outliers?
For researcher Jean-Marie Robine, each supercentenarian is a crucial datapoint in the quest to answer a big question: Is there ...
