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.
‘Robust evidence for bisexual orientation among men’: LGBTQ study revision
In , J. Michael Bailey, a sexuality researcher at Northwestern University, and two colleagues showed men who identify as bisexual brief ...
Athletic evolution: Comparing modern athletes to ancestral warriors
Scholars have long argued that Neanderthal weapons were too hefty to hurl and, therefore, had to be thrust directly into ...
Cancer testing breakthrough: Experimental blood test can detect disease up to four years before symptoms appear
By using a blood test, [an] international team was able to diagnose cancer long before symptoms appeared in nearly all the ...
Viewpoint: Don’t waste your money on banking your baby’s umbilical cord blood
[I]n the U.S., the practice of storing umbilical cord blood is steadily on the rise. Banking cord blood in case a ...
Pushing back on claims of links between marijuana and autism
Women are increasingly using marijuana during pregnancy, especially as more states in the United States and other countries legalize its ...
What does a gene edited squid look like?
Researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory used CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing to eliminate a gene in embryos of the squid Doryteuthis pealeii, which ...
Rat magnets: Why did cats become attached to humans?
The exact relationship between early, semi-domesticated cats and humans isn’t clear cut. While there’s some evidence that people had personal ...
Anti-vax conspiracy promoter Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. sues Facebook claiming fact-checking is censorship
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed suit [August 18] in federal court in California alleging that Facebook's fact-checking program for false ...
Babies’ brain waves could forewarn autism
[B]abies who have unusually high or low synchrony between certain brain waves — as measured by electroencephalography (EEG) — at ...
Behold the sturddlefish: ‘It’s like if a cow and a giraffe made a baby’
“Sturddlefish,” as these [Russian sturgeon and American paddlefish] hybrids were nicknamed after researchers in Hungary announced their creation last month, go shockingly ...
Brain activation: How to help the blind see
[I]n a recent study at Baylor College of Medicine, researchers made the blind see. A team led by neurosurgeon Daniel Yoshor “drew” letters ...
DNA shows Neanderthals mated with humans in two waves, not just once
[A]ncient humans mated with Neanderthals between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago, well before the more recent, and better-known mixing of the two ...
Marijuana use during pregnancy increases infant’s chances of getting autism by 50%
[C]hildren of mothers who reported using cannabis during pregnancy had a 50% increased risk of developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ...
Deaths in less developed countries set to surge from malaria, HIV and TB linked to COVID-19 disruptions
Over the next five years, deaths from [HIV, tuberculosis and malaria] could rise by as much as 10%, 20% and ...
‘A new chapter in my life’: Woman gets second face transplant
Carmen Blandin Tarleton, 52, underwent her second operation for a new face in July after the transplant she received seven ...
Discovery of fire lit up human evolution. When did it occur?
Scientists suspect that without a control over fire, humans probably would never have developed large brains and the benefits that ...
Headspace for work app: Mindfulness science or scam?
Demand for the mindfulness and meditation app has skyrocketed since the Covid-19 pandemic and its ripple effects began taking a ...
Metformin: First pill that purportedly treats age-related illnesses in review for approval for trials
In recent decades, we've come leaps and bounds in treating and preventing some of the world's leading age-related diseases, such as ...
‘Like, wow’!: 3-D ultrasound images allow blind parents ‘glimpse’ at their newborn’s face
[S]ophisticated technology allows [blind parents] to “see” their little ones before they are born by creating a 3-D image to ...
One year in, 9 boys with muscular dystrophy show remarkable progress from gene therapy
Nine boys aged 6 to 12 who have been living with [Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy] since birth received a gene therapy ...
Synthetic biology ‘apps’: Here comes a revolution in medicine, chemicals, agriculture and food
Today, anyone who can code can win in the internet economy. Thanks to services such as Amazon’s AWS and Apple’s ...
Missing link: The complicated sex lives of ancient humans
Analysis of two Neanderthal genomes, one Denisovan genome, and four modern human genomes revealed new evidence of gene flow between ...
Do you have a quick mind? It could be because your cerebellum is so large
Sometimes referred to by its Latin translation as the "little brain", the cerebellum is located close to the brainstem and ...
Personalized medicine and precision nutrition: Biases distort how individuals respond to health risks
Some people fear sharks more than cars, although the probability of dying in a car is over 30,000 times higher. And ...
Pew survey: 80% of churchgoers, including most Republicans, support masks and social distancing during services
U.S. adults overwhelmingly say houses of worship should be required to follow the same rules about social distancing and large ...
Eagles’ DeSean Jackson’s bizarre anti-Semitic comments and impulsiveness might be due to a history of frequent concussions
In early July, [DeSean] Jackson landed himself in hot water by sharing a bad quote on Instagram, details Newsweek. In all fairness, it ...
Worse than COVID19: Millions of deaths expected from other diseases as pandemic crisis sucks resources
Until this year, TB and its deadly allies, H.I.V. and malaria, were on the run. The toll from each disease ...
