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.
Neuroscience’s big question: What is consciousness?
While we may all be intimately familiar with what consciousness feels like, explaining why it exists or how it arises ...
Video: How do insects with tiny brains engage in complex human-like behavior?
Recently, geologist Casey Luskin interviewed Eric Cassell, author of Animal Algorithms: Evolution and the Mysterious Origin of Ingenious Insects (2021) on ...
How culture and technology are shaping human evolution
Cultural changes are likely affecting modern human evolution in ways we don’t yet understand. For example, research has shown that ...
Epigenetics and trauma: How the Rwanda genocide scarred survivors’ yet-to-be-born children
In 1994, one of the most horrific civil wars took place in the rural country of Rwanda. In a period ...
What is the science behind heartbreak?
When her husband left her after more than 25 years together, science writer Florence Williams says her body felt like ...
Can you worry yourself to death? Anxiety increases risk of heart disease in men
Anxiety is linked to several cardiometabolic conditions, including coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and hypertension. The reasons behind these links and how they develop, ...
Conspiracy theories and disinformation: School children are now falling for fake news at an alarming rate
When Amanda Gardner, an educator with two decades of experience, helped to start a new charter elementary and middle school ...
Here is evidence of recent human evolution. Will it help us adapt to rapid climate change?
From emergence of Homo Sapiens within the history of primates and beginning to tread the Earth being an early man ...
Breeding genetically modified cloned pigs for human transplants
German scientists plan to clone and then breed this year genetically modified pigs to serve as heart donors for humans, ...
Robosexuals: How close are we to the inevitable era of artificial intelligence-driven sex robots?
Robosexuals eagerly await the promised arrival of sophisticated sex robots: talking, walking dolls that can carry a conversation, discern what ...
How exercise reprograms your brain
Physical activity can do wonders for the body. Exercise can trim weight, chisel muscles, and strengthen the lower back, among ...
Cure for cancer? Two patients leukemia free a decade after breakthrough gene therapy
Penn researchers in 2010 treated their first chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients with CAR-T therapy, which uses the body’s own immune ...
Is wisdom linked to gender?
Previous studies have shown that wisdom is a personality trait underpinning mental health and well-being. Recently, researchers at University of ...
Can virtual reality treatment mimicking a psychedelic trip help relieve depression and PTSD?
What if you could unlock the same altered state of consciousness that psychedelics do — as well as their potential ...
Adult at 18? Citing slow brain development, some neuroscientists say it’s time to question the legal ‘age of adulthood’
You might say that the 18th birthday marks the transition from childhood to adulthood. After all, that’s the age at ...
Moderate drinking is good for your health? Massive study of 333,000 people challenges belief that a few drinks a week protects you from heart problems
Red wine has antioxidants, we've been told, so a few glasses are apparently 'good for you'. Other studies have suggested ...
‘Unproven and unethical’: Ethicists raise questions about human embryo risk analysis tests
Experts have warned against the “unproven” and “unethical” use of genetic tests to predict the risk of complex diseases in ...
How do gene-environment interactions drive autism?
People with autism spectrum disorders all have characteristic behavioral difficulties. Nevertheless, the important heterogeneity of their symptoms remains one of ...
Will Lia Thomas get bumped from the summer Olympics under the new USA swimming rules rolled out this week?
After USA Swimming released its new transgender athlete participation policy [February 1], questions immediately turned to how this action would affect ...
Sixth Mass Extinction: Why the world may be headed for a global biodiversity catastrophe, assessment claims
The history of life on Earth has been marked five times by events of mass biodiversity extinction caused by extreme ...
Do biobanks that accept anonymous DNA have a responsibility to inform donors when they discover a treatable genetic defect?
What should happen when researchers, while sequencing a participant’s DNA as part of a large study, discover gene variants that ...
Many high-functioning psychopaths live amongst us
As of 2021, approximately 1.2% of the general adult population is estimated to suffer from some form of psychopathy, based ...
Breast and ovarian cancer BRCA genes now linked to prostate and pancreatic cancers, even in men
Faulty versions of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are well known to increase the risk of breast cancer in men ...
The brain science behind thirst
It feels so simple. When we're thirsty, we drink. But the brain science behind that decision is pretty complicated, a ...
Difficulty losing weight on diets? Your metabolism works against you
Many people trying to shed pounds have seen their diets stall after a certain amount of weight loss. A new ...
‘Dating, mating, rating and hating’: Male-female sex differences rooted in more than 1,000 brain-related genes in mice — and almost certainly in humans
According to a new study led by Stanford University and published in the journal Cell, male and female mouse brains ...
‘Deleting’ disease? How gene editing and transgenic GMO technology can cut disorders before they are inherited
What has now been proven possible was once the stuff of science fiction dreams. CRISPR has shown it can successfully ...
