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.
Chance of extraterrestrial contact will multiply by 1,000 in coming decade, says SETI scientist
[H]owever small the probability of seeing a signal from E.T. is, those chances are soon going to be a lot ...
1918 Spanish flu redux? ‘Unprepared for the deluge of death’, politicians rejected ‘social distancing’ in bungled handling of the pandemic
It was a parade like none Philadelphia had ever seen.... When the Fourth Liberty Loan Drive parade stepped off on September ...
Worst-case scenario for coronavirus deaths ‘imperfect and has to rely on a number of assumptions’
On Monday [March 16], the COVID-19 Response Team at Imperial College London released a report that describes its efforts to ...
Hunting for DNA signatures in blood could offer early warning system for cancer
The many companies developing liquid biopsies to try to detect cancer early have so far largely mined the blood in ...
‘A new thing to worry about’: Coronavirus adds stress for people with anxiety disorders
For some of the millions of Americans with post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder or other forms of debilitating anxiety, coronavirus ...
Colonizing other planets could be the key to humanity’s long-term survival
Our species will face no shortage of existential risks in the coming decades, whether it be from nuclear war, climate ...
Video: What CRISPR means for human evolution
Tech experts discuss the past, present and future of CRISPR gene editing. How will the technology affect our future generations? ...
Custom 3D printed bone implants could revolutionize reconstructive surgery
Become partially android for a couple of years while your body heals itself. It may sound far-fetched, but for patients ...
Infographic: How the coronavirus appears ‘seemingly out of nowhere’
When Emma Hodcroft read that, seemingly out of nowhere, a rash of cases of the novel coronavirus had popped up in Britain ...
Viewpoint: Despite ‘hope and hype’, genome sequencing hasn’t given us revolutionary medical treatments
An emergency room physician, initially unable to diagnose a disoriented patient, finds on the patient a wallet-sized card providing access ...
Plummeting prices for genetic sequencing open ‘Pandora’s box of ethical concerns’
The speed at which the price of genetic sequencing has fallen has been astonishing, from $50,000 a decade ago to roughly $600 today ...
If naps don’t work for you, it could be genetics
Naturally, I’ve always been a little jealous of the people who take naps and wake up feeling like a million ...
Are babies born with brains ready to understand the world?
Neuroscientists understand much about how the human brain is organized into systems specialized for recognizing faces or scenes or for ...
Anxious dog? Here are some things that may be stressing your furry friend
Nearly three out of four dogs exhibit some kind of serious behavioral problem related to anxiety, according to a survey involving nearly ...
Identical sex chromosomes could be key to a long life
When 109-year-old Jessie Gallan was asked about the secret to her long life, she replied “staying away from men.” Other ...
Global plan to halt extinction criticized for failing to address species humans don’t like
A global plan to halt the loss of nature is "weak" in one key area, say scientists. The new 10-year ...
Does listening to music make difficult tasks easier? That may depend on your personality
The fact that music can make a difficult task more tolerable may be why students often choose to listen to ...
Viewpoint: Protecting NFL players’ brains demands ‘unbiased researchers with good intentions’
As a spectator, it’s easy to forget the long term consequences of 300 pound humans crashing into each other at over 20 ...
Birth of the placebo effect: How an 18th century doctor’s bogus animal magnetism treatment ‘cured’ patients
Word spread amongst the Parisian upper class in the late 18th century: A new man in town had a novel ...
Ancient tool technology passed down for thousands of generations by extinct human species, study says
When it comes to extinct human species, Neanderthals tend to hog the spotlight. But another group of early humans, Homo erectus, is ...
Stopping the ‘raging fire of Alzheimer’s’: Researchers shifting attention in fight against neurodegenerative diseases
Tau was long thought to be a secondary actor. Amyloid plaque builds up first, largely outside of neurons, followed by ...
‘Game-changer’: Europe’s ExoMars rover armed with new life-testing tool
In a new paper published in the journal Astrobiology, Jacob Heinz, my colleague at the Technical University of Berlin, and I discuss ...
Online DNA tests: How can we sort the rubbish from the real science?
The landscape of the consumer genomics market now would have been barely recognizable a decade ago. One study by scholar ...
Malfunctioning brain ‘hubs’ could be responsible for dyslexia, ADHD
Different learning difficulties do not, as previously thought, correspond to specific regions of the brain, new British research suggests. Instead, ...
Extraterrestrial protein found inside meteorite? If true, discovery bolsters pursuit of alien life
A team of researchers claim to have found a protein inside a meteorite. It would be the first protein ever ...
Autistic children often have trouble sleeping. Melatonin may help, study says
Melatonin is safe for long-term use in autistic children who have difficulty sleeping, according to a new study. The study ...
Visit Mars and bring back alien life? Troubles containing coronavirus should make us wary of bringing microbes to Earth
You know what? Maybe we ought to reconsider this whole thing about looking for life on other worlds. It would ...
