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.
How probiotics can relieve depression symptoms
Probiotics either taken by themselves or when combined with prebiotics, may help to ease depression, suggests a review of the ...
Which depression treatment is right for you? AI could provide answers
Currently, depression is diagnosed by a survey — commonly, the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) — which quantifies the severity ...
Why facts don’t work against vaccine deniers and other science skeptics
Bemoaning uneven individual and state compliance with public health recommendations, top U.S. COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci recently blamed the country’s ...
Why haven’t we been contacted by alien civilizations? Maybe because most have extinguished themselves, as we likely will
For some reason, civilization is not a self-perpetuating state of affairs on this planet. And perhaps not on other planets, ...
‘Mind blindness’ makes it hard to remember the past and picture the future
[R]ecent studies have found that 2% to 5% of people will see nothing at all [when they try to imagine ...
Brain stimulation could help you get stronger, faster
[Halo Neuroscience CEO Brett Wingeier] said that they make a headset which stimulates your brain to help you get better, ...
Summer heat waves can turn common medications deadly
Heat waves kill more people than any other single weather event, making them dangerous by themselves. But if you are ...
How ancient fish fins gave rise to modern human hands
In 1859 Charles Darwin remarked… in On the Origin of Species: “What can be more curious than that the hand ...
Space-thriving bacteria hold key to quickly and cheaply producing innovative polio vaccine
[Molecular biologist Mike] Daly has been investigating ways to apply the lessons learned from this bacteria’s unique radiation resistance to ...
Knocking out cholesterol genes could offer ‘one-and-done’ CRISPR cure for heart disease
When CRISPR “base editing” was used to knock out two cholesterol-associated genes in monkeys, the animals’ blood levels of heart-disease-causing ...
How can we better expose ‘silent’ war crimes? Thousands of human rights violations identified through crowdsourced evidence
By some estimates, [a coalition between Saudi Arabia and eight other Sunni Arab states has] carried out over 20,000 air ...
How to keep virtual reality from taking over real life
American R&B star John Legend is doing a major live show on Thursday June 25 to promote his new album, ...
Does the full moon affect behavior? It does in some animals
Past studies suggest car crashes and crime increases are common during a full moon, although it's not understood why… Animals ...
How should trans athletes qualify for women’s sports?
In 2004, the nationally ranked long-distance runner [Joanna Harper] started hormone therapy (HT) as part of her transition to female ...
Infographic: How old is your dog in ‘human years’? Genetics prompt scientists to revise ‘outdated’ 1-to-7 formula
If there’s one myth that has persisted through the years without much evidence, it’s this: multiply your dog’s age by ...
Why do some scents trigger powerful memories?
Anecdotally, many of us have had experiences where a certain smell—perhaps chlorine, fresh baked cookies, or the salty beach air—floods ...
Are there benefits to exercising while sick?
According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), for the majority of fitness enthusiasts engaged in 30-60 minutes of ...
Flu vaccine makers plan to increase production as they brace for unprecedented winter season
Even though flu season doesn’t begin until the fall, major flu vaccine manufacturers say they plan to boost production by ...
Why sex matters in medicine
The last time I saw Maria-Rosa, she was on a stretcher, surrounded by frantic nurses and interns who were trying, ...
Vikings were not the first global voyagers. Bronze age Norwegians likely sailed the seas 2,000 years before
[A]rchaeologists who study Norway during the Bronze Age have discovered a great deal of new information. ... People who lived ...
Anti-vaxxers don’t want safer vaccines, they want no vaccines
“I try to look and see where the evidence takes me.” Does this statement sound reasonable? If I told you ...
5 biggest differences between 23andMe, MyHeritage and AncestryDNA
1) Extra Offerings In addition to their well-known ancestry tests, each of these companies also has extra features that can ...
Why did fatherhood evolve?
We might take the doting modern dad for granted, but if you take a look at the rest of the ...
Opening the floodgates to synthetic biology innovations in drugs, textiles, agricultural products and advanced materials
Today’s DNA makers still create their products using chemistry. To form a new double helix, the individual letters of DNA ...
Why your morning cup of coffee sends you running to the bathroom
Coffee makes you poop. That's a fact, right? It must be, since you can buy t-shirts or mugs with that ...
Human organ factories? Defense Department seeds Segway inventor Dean Kamen’s ambitious project, but success seems years away
[N]one of [Dean Kamen’s] many inventions — including the Segway — has an impact that comes close to what could ...
Concerned about ‘fake news’? It could get a lot worse with AI
Fake news has certainly become a widespread and insidious problem, and in a year when we’re dealing with both a ...
