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.
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 ...
Children of alcoholics slower at switching from one task to another, study suggests
One of the strongest predictors of becoming an alcoholic is family history: the offspring of people with the disorder are ...
Our brains aren’t computers and why it hinders research to think of them that way
By viewing the brain as a computer that passively responds to inputs and processes data, we forget that it is ...
Video: Why do people lose their hair? And can we bring it back?
What do Charles Darwin, Michael Jordan, and Yoda have in common? They, like many other historical and fictional individuals, are ...
Conspiracy theorists suggest the coronavirus was engineered in a Chinese lab. The scientific consensus disagrees.
[O]n Fox News and social media, a dangerous conspiracy theory about the origin of the health crisis won’t die. There ...
Is being obese similar to being old? Both make the body vulnerable to life-threatening diseases, researchers say
Globally, an estimated 1.9 billion adults and 380 million children are overweight or obese. According to the World Health Organization, ...
For treating epileptic seizures, pharmaceutical CBD is more effective than ‘artisanal’ alternatives, researchers say
Children and teens with epilepsy who were treated with pharmaceutical cannabidiol (CBD) had much better seizure control than those who were treated ...
Common form of inherited blindness shows ‘massive improvements’ with experimental gene therapy
This month, K.L. became one of the first patients to receive a new experimental gene therapy for children with a ...
Fertility breakthrough: First baby born from eggs matured in lab before being frozen
Fertility doctors in France have announced the birth of the first baby to be born to a cancer patient from ...
35 drugs in the race for a coronavirus treatment
As the world scrambles to monitor and contain the COVID-19 outbreak, drug companies are racing to develop or repurpose treatments ...
Trouble sleeping? Your children may experience the same problems, study suggests
Researchers have long known that severe sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, are hereditary. But what about common sleep problems, ...
‘Illusion of causality’ and why we trust our own experiences more than science
Did you cut out sugar and feel more energetic, take vitamin C and stop getting colds, switch to eating only ...
Trouble dragging yourself to the gym? It could be your genes
It’s long been thought that some people find exercising easier than others. While some will happily jog off to the ...
Something’s fishy: We got arms, legs and other skeletal features from our aquatic ancestors
In his 20 years as an ichthyologist, [John Sparks has] seen a lot of fish—intact and not. He’s traveled to ...
We’re better at fighting epidemics because of advances in genetic sequencing, synthetic biology and a willingness to collaborate
It’s impossible not to draw parallels between SARS and the new coronavirus outbreak, COVID-19, that’s been ravaging China and spreading ...
