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.
Nuclear reactor on the moon? NASA’S race to transform space travel
NASA is fast-tracking a plan to build a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030 under a new directive from the agency’s interim ...
Vindication for He Jiankui? Seven years after the Chinese scientist’s pioneering work landed him in jail, scientists and ethicists are exploring the inevitably of gene edited babies
A Chinese scientist horrified the world in 2018 when he revealed he had secretly engineered the birth of the world's ...
Plants digest diesel and polyester, break down pesticides and fabric dyes, and store heavy metals in their bodies. Exploiting nature’s powers to clean up the environment
With the products of our technology now woven into remote ecosystems and our own flesh, there’s no escape from ourselves ...
Humanoid surrogate robots spark debate as China pushes reproductive frontier
A Chinese tech firm is racing to deliver what could be the world’s first “gestation robot”. The idea from Kaiwa ...
Genius children: Silicon Valley billionaires are throwing money at strategies to engineer brilliant children
This isn’t science fiction. It is Silicon Valley, where interest in breeding smarter babies is peaking. Parents here are paying ...
Why AI and nuclear energy are inextricably linked
The explosive growth of the artificial intelligence industry, a boom that is still only in its infancy, is already triggering surging electricity ...
Viewpoint: Cheryl Hine’s journey from Hollywood to MAHA: Former B-list actress provides an affable front for philandering, former drug addict husband, RFK, Jr.
As an actress, the public figure Cheryl Hines was just another Hollywood liberal. But as Mrs. Bobby Kennedy, she’s a ...
‘Frankenstein bunnies’: Rabbits with antler-like tentacles are swarming through Colorado
Rabbits in northern Colorado have been spotted with bizarre, somewhat grisly horns on their face. But wildlife officials say the ...
Viewpoint: The Catholic Church’s new guidelines on AI fail to account for the overlap of evolution and technology
While the Vatican acknowledges stages of technological development, it lacks a model of integrating science and religion that can adequately ...
Is sunscreen bad for your health? MAHA and social media disinformation threatens a resurgence in skin cancer
Sunscreen protects the skin by either absorbing or reflecting ultraviolet rays that can cause sunburn, premature aging and skin cancer ...
Implantable brain technology: ALS patient is first to control iPad by thought
A patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has become the first person in the world to control an iPad entirely ...
Viewpoint: The social justice corruption of medicine
Today, social justice imperatives are deeply entrenched in the medical profession. As a close observer of such trends, I have ...
‘Scared …less’: Chemophobic ‘precautionary principle’ undermines science of food and health, and MAHA makes it worse
These days, the average American consumer … is scared $#!+less. Just about everywhere you turn there’s a health guru or ...
Viewpoint: Truth Social rolled out an AI Chatbot that relies mostly on rightwing misinformation purveyors
When I ask the new Truth Social AI chatbot about navigating bias in the media ecosystem, it gives what I view as pretty ...
How humans (and apes) evolved to love alcohol
Humans and some other great apes share an unusual adaptation: They can metabolize ethyl alcohol – the intoxicating ingredient in ...
Podcast: The race to build a viable brain-computer implant and why they are revolutionary
Brain-computer interfaces might have inspired works of science fiction, but the technology behind them is real and quickly developing. Companies ...
Why women are more prone to Alzheimer’s than men
More women get diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease than men. In developed countries, studies suggest about two-thirds of people with Alzheimer's are women. It's ...
Nuclear concerns: What are the dangers as AI gets baked into our nuclear arsenal
The people who study nuclear war for a living are certain that artificial intelligence will soon power the deadly weapons. None of them ...
Genetics of stuttering: Early interventions could help as many as 400 million people worldwide
A global study has identified the DNA markers for stuttering, providing a genetic link that will pave the way for ...
How a devout Muslim creationist missionary became an avowed evolutionist
Guiding us on the epic, mind-expanding journey is paleoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi, who has undergone her own radical evolution. As a ...
Viewpoint: Failing RFK, Jr.’s science undermines U.S. innovation and opens the door to Chinese dominance
Since Dr. Vinay Prasad’s appointment as a key political voice within FDA, the tone of U.S. biotech policy has shifted from enabling ...
Tripping your way to better mental health?
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST: [I]t seemed like there might finally be an opening for psychedelics to become a part of the ...
Why are detectable rates of autism soaring in the U.S. but holding steady in other countries with a history of far better screening? It’s not vaccines or chemicals but ‘diagnosis inflation’
Almost every week, it seems, we read news of some new epidemic — medical, psychological, social. Taken together, these alarming ...
Early life trauma can ‘program’ children’s brains for a life of aggression
Aggression isn’t just a behavioral issue—it has deep neurobiological roots, especially when shaped by early-life trauma. New research is investigating ...
Viewpoint: What’s the long-term impact of Trump’s attacks on universities
“I have not experienced, across 46 years of higher education, a period where there’s been this much distance” between the ...
‘Feel Free’: People getting addicted to this addictive ‘botanical’ supplement drink with kava root and kratom, and regulators are doing nothing
Feel Free’s most well-known variant — the “Classic” tonic made by the company Botanic Tonics, which also makes a “Kava ...
Viewpoint: RFK Jr.’s FDA fake review of fluoride supplements with already announced plan to ban them is terrible science
Extensively studied over decades, fluoride has been scientifically validated for its effectiveness in reducing dental cavities, particularly in children. It ...
