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.
People with two copies of ‘Alzheimer’s gene’ at greater risk of developing severe COVID-19 infection
The APOE ε4 gene variant that puts people at a greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease also has a link ...
Infographic: ‘Bionic breasts’ could restore sensation after mastectomies
As many as 100,000 breast cancer patients have one or both breasts removed in mastectomies every year in the United ...
Piecing together ‘jigsaw puzzle’ of Dead Sea Scroll fragments with the help of DNA sequencing
Ever since the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, scholars have tried to piece together the fragments as though they were ...
Cells that fight pathogens might also speed up human ‘inflammaging’
Our T cells let us down as we age, becoming weaker pathogen fighters. This decline helps explain why elderly people ...
‘Partnership with sunlight’: Why staying inside all the time makes us vulnerable to infections
For the past two months, a sizable chunk of the world’s population has been shuttered inside their homes, only stepping ...
Could COVID-19 cause wives to cheat? How pandemics affect sexual desire
The coronavirus has impacted society and affected our behaviour in many ways from an increase in our use of social ...
Infographic: How our brains keep track of time
It’s unclear how the brain keeps track of the timing of events within a memory. One theory posits that, as ...
DNA from 14,000-year-old tooth offers oldest known link between Native Americans and southern Siberia
A 14,000-year-old genome scraped from a prehistoric tooth found in southern Siberia is now the oldest known connection linking living ...
Explaining near-death experiences and why they aren’t always ‘blissful’
Near-death experiences, or NDEs, are triggered during singular life-threatening episodes when the body is injured by blunt trauma, a heart ...
‘The Idea of the Brain’: Pinpointing the storage location for our memories
For centuries, scientists have been arguing about where memory resides in the brain. I explore the fascinating history of this ...
First gene-edited CRISPR COVID-19 mouse created; Opens door to study infections and develop therapies
Human cells and mice cells each express their own version of angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), the membrane-bound receptor that ...
‘Spectacularly unimpressive’: Neural network AI asked to judge human personalities through photos
[If] personality traits have a significant genetic contribution (which seems clear) then we can ask – to what extent do ...
How weird can life on earth get? Check out these creatures found in deep arctic waters
How should we get our children, our parents and anyone else excited about biodiversity of tiny Arctic microalgae or Arctic ...
Video: Why we should ignore most reported COVID-19 statistics
Every day we wake up and check COVID-19 updates. Governments usually announce 6 main numbers: 1) New cases 2) Total ...
Prehistoric footprints offer snapshot of how our ancestors divided labor between men and women
Prehistoric footprints are a remarkable and precious source of evidence for the behavior and biology of ancient organisms, capturing a ...
From art to zombies, the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic gave us some ‘surprising cultural byproducts’
Elizabeth Outka, author of "Viral Modernism: The Influenza Pandemic and Interwar Literature," argues the 1918 flu pandemic's influence is an ...
The human brain may not be such a great model for designing artificial intelligence
[M]ost artificial neural networks are decidedly un-brainlike, in part because they learn using mathematical tricks that would be difficult, if ...
Outside of ‘occasional surges’, biodiversity evolution has been largely stagnant for millions of years, studies suggest
The traditional view is that species have increased in diversity continuously over the past 200 million years, particularly in the last ...
Struggling to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic? These apps could help you stay sane
Set a reminder to write down how you’re feeling every day. Now you’ve started a mood diary. These sorts of ...
Environmental factors can’t be blamed for rising autism rates, study says
The relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors to autism and traits of the condition have held steady over multiple ...
Marijuana? Masturbation? Alcohol? What behaviors affect male fertility?
[W]e can look at overall trends in the scientific literature and draw some conclusions about what facets of your life ...
Recreation of Earth’s ancient hydrothermal vents suggests life could emerge even on ‘hellish worlds’
One theory for how life emerged suggests that it originated in the sea, at alkaline hydrothermal vents. It’s impossible to ...
‘Trial by fire’: How COVID-19 is changing the biotech industry’s relationship with artificial intelligence
AI is currently being used by many companies to identify and screen existing drugs that could be repurposed to treat ...
Early test for autism could be possible by measuring levels of the hormone vasopressin
Low levels of the hormone vasopressin in early infancy may presage an autism diagnosis in childhood, according to a new ...
‘Thinness gene’ could offer genetically engineered weight control strategy
While others may be dieting and hitting the gym hard to stay in shape, some people stay slim effortlessly no ...
Cheaper gene editing poised to change the world ‘and even extend human lifespans’
Increasingly inexpensive genetic sequencing and engineering tools could upend everything from health care to fuel. Why it matters: This bio ...
Rise of the dinosaur may have been fueled by earlier mass extinction event
When it was alive, this large, crocodile-like reptile lurked in the swamps and rivers of the Triassic — a time ...
