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.
Centenarians have unique genetic characteristics. Here’s why studying them might help us solve the mystery of longevity
A recent perspective article on human longevity focuses on socioeconomic standards and health care. In our opinion the authors could ...
‘Phenomenal advancements’ in gene drive technology to eradicate disease-carrying mosquitoes
Gene drives are selfish genetic elements that are transmitted to progeny at super-Mendelian (>50%) frequencies. Recently developed CRISPR–Cas9-based gene-drive systems ...
‘Ghost lineages’: Discovering extinct species in modern animal DNA
Either before, during, or shortly after their migration to the [Tibetan] plateau, H. sapiens got friendly with Denisovans, while their ...
Misinformation trifecta: How disinformation spreaders weaponize science
Recently it has become more apparent to me that often there is a common strategy to weaponizing misinformation. It’s likely ...
Is borderline personality disorder genetic?
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a mental health condition characterized by instability in moods, self-image, and behavior. People with BPD ...
Why is life genetically programmed to die?
Epidemics have a way of making one wonder about death. To put it plainly, in the raw form it takes ...
Biodiversity surprise: In Quebec, there are 25% more species than 500 years ago, challenging ecosystem catastrophists, Nature reports
[Mark] Vellend, who teaches at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada, poses a question to his students every year: ...
Biotech beauty: How technology advances are revolutionizing the skin care, cosmetics and beauty market
Until recently the beauty industry could be split into two camps. In one corner, there’s high-tech, lab-made contenders – like ...
Rethinking ‘The Omega Man’: How viruses alter human DNA
[W]e're celebrating 50 years since the release of The Omega Man, the 1971 film based on Richard Matheson's novel I ...
On average, women live 5 years longer than men. It’s mostly genetics
Around the world, women live longer, on average. So why do women tend to outlive men? Two of the main ...
How climate change shaped evolution in the Middle East
Researchers at the University of Birmingham and the Wellcome Sanger Institute, along with their international collaborators, have uncovered signals in ...
Will artificial wombs usher in a new era of gender equality?
Imagine a world where it’s possible to produce children without placing any burden on women — an empowered society where ...
The de-extinction club: Scientists plot to restore the Tasmanian tiger and other extinct species
[Paleontologist Michael Archer] is part of the “de-extinction club”: a growing group of scientists working to harness genetic engineering and ...
60% of elderly people have hearing problems. Here’s how gene editing and other cutting-edge techniques could restore the inner ear
Hearing loss is one of the most common disabilities in the United States. It can be caused by the effects ...
It may sound fantastical, but some forms of brain cancer may be treatable with magnets
I look at any therapeutic claims about magnets with a huge does of skepticism. Generally I assume it is a ...
Brain speak: Electrodes implanted in a paralyzed man’s brain transmit signals to a computer that reads his words
He has not been able to speak since 2003, when he was paralyzed at age 20 by a severe stroke ...
‘Nature’s gift to neuroscience’: Squids have a lot to tell us about the mystery of the human brain
Hundreds of times larger than the largest axon in humans, [squid axon] girth allows electrical impulses to travel rapidly into ...
Kenya is emerging as a major hub of CRISPR biomedical research in Africa
Kenyan scientist Dr Hussein Abkallo wound up in the sophisticated world of Crispr Cas9 almost by chance, unaware that the ...
‘Inflammation clock’: There is now a tool to measure your biological age
A new type of age ‘clock’ can assess chronic inflammation to predict whether someone is at risk of developing age-related ...
‘Beyond beating people at Jeopardy’: Artificial Intelligence takes on the human senses
Even the smartest computers cannot fully understand the world without the ability to see, hear, smell, taste or touch. But ...
How CRISPR gene editing will revolutionize medicine
Already, there have been hundreds of proposed applications for CRISPR, some more interesting and others more problematic. A few examples ...
‘Bad Men’ review: David M. Buss on the ‘natural origins’ of male aggressiveness
Professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Texas, [David M.] Buss is the author of a long list of ...
Pseudoscience warning: People who simply ‘trust science’ are likely to spread misinformation
A new study finds that people who trust science are more likely to believe and disseminate false claims containing scientific ...
Facial recognition systems are the next target for fraudsters. Here’s how to stop them
Facial-recognition systems, long touted as a quick and dependable way to identify everyone from employees to hotel guests, are in ...
Science is revolutionizing how elite female athletes train. What we’ve learned could benefit all women
When Dr. Kate Ackerman was in medical school 20 years ago, she'd heard of the term "female athlete triad." Coined ...
‘Designing’ cats to be less allergenic? Gene editing provides a solution
Solutions for people who want to be around cats despite allergies are labor-intensive, of questionable value, and sometimes defy common ...
Malaria-transmitting mosquitoes wiped out in successful cutting-edge gene drive trial
Scientists have successfully wiped out a population of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes by using a radical form of genetic engineering to render ...
