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.
Will humanoid robots render humans obsolete?
Maybe you believe that humans uniquely will always have to perform the highest-stakes, most delicate and demanding tasks in our ...
Post-conviction DNA testing legislation under consideration to right wrongful charges
I'll never forget how lonely I felt when the jury announced its guilty verdict and the courtroom erupted in applause ...
Genetic analysis shows prostate cancer to be five distinct diseases
Scientists have discovered that prostate cancer could in fact be five different diseases, in research that may change the way the ...
Early life stress, gut bacteria affect later risk for anxiety and depression
Scientists continue to find more and more evidence of the significant influence gut bacteria has on mental health. Studies have linked gut ...
Who has more similar genome: Men and women or males and male chimps?
Gender differences and sexual preferences are frequently a point of conversation. What produces the differences between men and women? Are ...
‘Ribo-T’, first artificial ribosome, opens path to designer drugs
In a first, researchers have engineered a tethered ribosome - the protein-making "factory" within cells - that works nearly as ...
Kuwaiti citizens: Register your genes…or else
In the wake of a suicide bombing, Kuwait became the first country to order mandatory DNA testing of all citizens ...
Digital reconstruction of mouse brain opens path to human experimentation
Six years might seem like a long time to spend piecing together the structure of a scrap of tissue vastly ...
What you need to know about surrogacy
Surrogacy is a complex and often controversial practice. Here's a primer on the advantages and disadvantages of surrogacy options ...
Ebola epidemic continues in West Africa, off media’s radar
When I told people earlier this month that I was off to West Africa again to cover the Ebola outbreak, ...
Promising MERS vaccine could prevent future outbreaks
Breathe easy, the South Korean public have been told. The outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is over. There ...
‘Night vision’ biohack exposes failings of media hype
In March, Gabriel Licina pinned his eyes open and had his friend, Jeffrey Tibbetts, place several drops of a carefully ...
Does search for ‘intelligence genes’ lead down road to eugenics?
Academic giftedness (I use this in a broad term to cover greater general academic aptitude), it would appear, is largely ...
CRISPR modifies human T cell genome, offering future AIDS therapy
Investigators from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have developed a new strategy to precisely modify human T cells using CRISPR/Cas9—implications ...
Evolution research answers why it ‘takes a village’ to raise human children
It's been said often enough to become cliché—it takes a village to raise a child. But how many of us ...
High IQ, long lifespan share common genetic underpinnings
By analysing data from twins, researchers found that 95 percent of the link between intelligence and lifespan is genetic. They ...
Cancer cells are ‘cheaters’ in Darwin’s vision of evolution
Maybe it was in “some warm little pond,” Charles Darwin speculated in 1871, that life on Earth began. A few simple chemicals ...
#CRISPRfacts media debate over Wired’s hype of gene editing technique
On July 21, WIRED magazine released its August issue with a cover story on the controversial new gene-editing technique CRISPR. Under the headline “The Genesis ...
Antibiotic resistant bacteria found in Australian wildlife raise public health concerns
Researchers have discovered antibiotic resistance genes are spreading to bacteria of Australian wildlife, which is worrying given the animals have ...
Personalized medicine, advanced genome coding advance to vastly improve medical care
We each have a biological map — the human genome — that can tell doctors a lot about us. By ...
Doctors offer solutions on how to best regulate rising prices of cancer treatments
Fifty years ago, the average monthly cost of a cancer therapy stood at $100 a month ($754.94 in today’s dollars). By 2013, ...
Some antibiotic-resistant bacteria can become even more virulent
We used to think that antibiotic resistance came at a cost for bacteria, making them weaker. It turns out that ...
Lawsuit challenges fertility clinics’ suppression of ‘free market’ for egg donations
How much is a human egg worth? The question is at the heart of a federal lawsuit brought by two ...
Breast reconstruction surgery receiving boost from stem cell technique
It’s hard to pin down exactly how many people get mastectomies in the United States. According to the Journal of the ...
New wave of HIV vaccines: Promises that can be fulfilled or more pipe dreams?
A cure for AIDS has remained elusive despite occasional if brief bursts of research optimism. We again are witnessing a ...
Backlash against Simon Copland’s Guardian claim being gay and sexuality are ‘fluid’: ‘We’re born this way’
In a recent Guardian article, Simon Copland argued that it is very unlikely people are born gay (or presumably any other ...
Imperfect vaccines may be making viruses stronger
The vaccines widely used by humans today — especially those used to protect children against mumps, measles, and other potentially deadly ...
