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.
CRISPR wonder: First gene-edited spider spins red fluorescent silk
Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have recently successfully bred the world’s first CRISPR-Cas9-modified spider to produce red fluorescent silk ...
Viewpoint: ‘It’s impossible to separate MAHA from MAGA: Why the promised health revolution will mostly serve the privileged
[H]ow is a movement that’s simultaneously about individual responsibility and corporate oversight going to accomplish anything in the most deregulatory ...
Vaccines are under fire, accused of not being tested against a placebo. That’s wrong. Here’s how they are tested for safety
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to require all new vaccines be tested against a placebo ...
Viewpoint: ‘Could’, ‘hazardous’ and ‘linked’—Bad science reporting uses RFK, Jr.’s favorite words
From Wi-Fi causing "leaky brain" to the herbicide atrazine turning male frogs female, the myriad of crackpot concepts Kennedy spews ...
As laws restricting transexuals proliferate, here’s where state laws stand in 2025
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is tracking 575 anti-LGBTQ+ state bills so far this year, most of which target ...
Kennedy claims the 1960s were a golden era of health, with far less disease. What’s the reality?
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, often says that when his uncle was president in the early 1960s, Americans ...
When profit-driven AI algorithms make medical decisions, vulnerable populations may suffer disproportionately
Automation promises speed, consistency and financial efficiency, but when it comes to healthcare, the increasing role of AI in such ...
Looming disease crisis? With vaccination rates falling, measles and polio rates could soar
Measles, rubella, polio and diphtheria—once ubiquitous, devastating and deeply feared—have been virtually eliminated from the U.S. for decades. Entire generations have ...
Longevity drug haven: Montana is now the U.S. epicenter for the use of unapproved drugs and experimental therapies
A bill that allows medical clinics to sell unproven treatments has been passed in Montana...doctors can apply for a license ...
Heartbreaking: Yes, you can die from a broken heart—especially men
A patient comes crashing into the emergency room with severe chest pain.... So the patient is rushed to the cath ...
Why RFK, Jr.’s placebo testing requirement for vaccine approval will cost lives
The health and human services secretary claimed that no vaccines other than the coronavirus shots had been tested against a ...
‘White genocide’: Ask Elon Musk’s Grok AI bot about sports or Medicare and it changes the subject to ‘oppressed’ South African whites
A chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence startup xAI appeared to be suffering from a glitch [on May ...
‘Arsenal in the culture war’: The evangelical Australian Christian behind the Noah’s Ark creation museum
[Australian Ken] Ham is founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis [AIG], which opened the Ark Encounter in 2016. The ...
More than 300 people in the U.S. are still dying every week from COVID
More than five years after the first cases of COVID-19 were detected in the United States, hundreds of people are ...
Viewpoint: Ethical questions about embryo screening and eugenics
Orchid and other start-ups like it take embryos produced by IVF and subject those embryos to polygenic screening. This process ...
AI and terrorism: How bioterrorists could easily fake an attack
While I am deeply concerned about the long-term existential threat of AI and synthetic biology to create new or modified ...
Leonardo da Vinci’s DNA lives on in at least six living people
For more than five centuries, Leonardo Da Vinci has been celebrated as a visionary artist, scientist, and inventor, known for ...
Viewpoint: Following no medical guidance, RFK, Jr. recklessly removes COVID vaccine recommendation for children and pregnant women
Yesterday, in a move that stunned the public health community, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced via Twitter/X that COVID-19 ...
‘They’re all corrupt’: In latest conspiracy claim, RFK, Jr. threatens to bar government scientists from publishing in leading science journals
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said [May 27] that he may bar government scientists from publishing ...
Why has there been a surge in adult autism diagnoses?
More U.S. adults than ever before have autism, and many are being diagnosed not as children, but in later years ...
Viewpoint: ‘Get toxins out of our environment’—Despite pledges, Trump’s MAHA policies are making some Americans more vulnerable
In his March address to Congress, President Donald Trump honored a Texas boy diagnosed with brain cancer. Amid bipartisan applause, ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr is peddling disinformation about autism—but it’s made him and his fellow tort lawyers a boatload of money
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s views on autism are clearly offensive. What’s less obvious is that they are also self-serving: He ...
What will happen with 23andMe’s personal genetic data now that it’s been bought in a bankruptcy auction
[R]egeneron Pharmaceuticals has agreed to buy the genetic testing firm 23andMe Holding for $256m through a bankruptcy auction, the companies announced [last ...
The science of sitting—and why walking may be better for our bodies than running
In today’s world, exercise is often elevated to near-religious status. It’s hard to go a day without encountering the latest ...
Science brain drain begins: Europe announces program to actively recruit disenchanted U.S. young scientists
The European Research Council (ERC) decision to increase its support for leading researchers moving to Europe has today been formally ...
Here’s how Oxitec’s GMO mosquitoes might help limit the scourge of malaria
Last year, Oxitec released tens of thousands of GM mosquitoes in Djibouti, where there has been a resurgence of malaria caused ...
‘AI will play a central role in the human experience’: Mark Zuckerberg on the future of artificial intelligence in our daily lives
“I think people are going to want a system that knows them well and that kind of understands them in ...
