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 brain ‘gene editing’ could open the door to cure neurological diseases
[A] recent "spate of technological advances" could see something like brain editing become a reality. Recent breakthroughs in CRISPR-derived gene-editing ...
Viewpoint: Private companies may soon be able to de-extinct our human ancestors. It’s time to debate ethics and regulations
The recent trend for resurrecting extinct animals has made headlines globally and sparked controversy over the validity of the claims ...
A single high dose of LSD can ease anxiety and depression for months
A rigorous new study finds that a single dose of LSD can ease anxiety and depression for months. The study ...
Viewpoint: Life and death decisions: RFK, Jr.’s shady FDA “expert panels” operate in secret with no transcripts or conflict of interest reviews
Americans trust the Food and Drug Administration to make life-and-death decisions in the open. Yet in recent months, the agency ...
‘SuperAgers’: Why some people have the brains and memory capacity of people decades younger
At 85, [Sel] Yackley is a “SuperAger.” That is, someone who is 80 or older and retains the memory capacity ...
Trust issues: What happens when therapists use ChatGPT?
Declan would never have found out his therapist was using ChatGPT had it not been for a technical mishap. The ...
‘You have to treat the brain first’: Rethinking chronic pain with Sanjay Gupta
In his book, “It Doesn’t Have to Hurt,” [Sanjay] Gupta explores what the latest science tells us on how to ...
California, Washington, Oregon forge immunization alliance to safeguard vaccine access against federal undermining
The Democratic governors of Washington state, Oregon and California announced ... that they have created an alliance to establish their ...
‘It’s like a throbbing pain that becomes quite unbearable’: What happens in the brain when a limb is amputated
Like many people who've had an amputation, [Emily] Wheldon often feels pain in her phantom arm and hand. "It's like ...
The microbiome–mind connection: Can faecal transplants treat depression?
Andrew Moseson experienced severe depression for many years. ... He struggled to find relief, nothing worked. ... Then, in the ...
Florida Surgeon General Ladapo calls vaccine mandates “slavery,” as Florida poised to become first state to end childhood vaccine mandates
Florida’s surgeon general ... announced plans to end all state vaccine mandates, including for children to attend schools, which would ...
Algorithms and addiction, teens sue Instagram over mental health harm
After they took too many pills, after their mother found them unconscious on their bedroom floor, after paramedics couldn't get ...
‘Go wild’: Don’t expect a disengaged and science-ignorant president to contain RFK’ Jr.’s assault on science
Trump pledged that he’d empower Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to “go wild" on health care. The president has kept his ...
Historians view Trump’s assault on science as page pulled from the autocrats’ playbook to secure more power
The war on science began four centuries ago when the Roman Catholic Church outlawed books that reimagined the heavens. Subsequent ...
Mining nuclear waste may power the future of nuclear power
Today’s nuclear power plants generate energy through a process called nuclear fission. ... This fission chain reaction provides a steady ...
‘Ruining the magic of breeding’? Cloning’s okay but gene-edited horses threaten to upend the pedigreed world of Polo
While Argentina, regarded as the global capital of polo, has long welcomed reproductive technologies – including cloning – to breed ...
Common wisdom: Westerners are overweight because they are not active enough. Study finds that’s not true
For decades, common wisdom and public health messaging have assumed that people in highly developed nations, like the United States, ...
Trump shutdown of LGBTQ+ suicide hotline sparks panic in many states
On July 17, the option shut down for LGBTQ+ youth to access specialized mental health support from the national 988 ...
‘A historic failure’: MIT management professor who falsely claimed Covid shots were ineffective and deadly appointed head of CDC vaccine oversight
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine advisory group has long had a work group in place to ...
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 ...
Viewpoint: Profiling Dr. David Geier, the anti-vax quack who is guiding RFK, Jr.’s vaccine policy
By Jessica SteierGraphics by Sara Chodosh and Taylor Maggiacomo Dr. Steier is a public health scientist who specializes in science ...
RFK, Jr. says ‘let measles run its course’. That’s what some said in 1990, and we had an urban health crisis
Few expected a major return of measles to the United States this year, a quarter-century after it was declared eliminated here. But return ...
Viewpoint: Thirst for revenge—What Jay Bhattacharya has in common with Stalin’s crackpot science seer Trofim Denisovich Lysenko
An insecure and inept but ambitious scientist climbs out of obscurity up a ladder of political favor in a burgeoning ...
‘He’s weaponizing public health’: RFK, Jr.’s hand picked CDC in disarray as three members resign and Trump fires the director
The White House on Wednesday fired Susan Monarez as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after she ...
Bill Ackman’s Alpha School: No to DEI, yes to AI
Billionaire Bill Ackman has a new fascination: a fast-growing private school that eschews lessons on diversity, equity and inclusion and ...
Mixed results: Lung from a genetically modified pig transplanted into a human
[I]n the first procedure of its kind, Chinese scientists on Monday reported transplanting a lung from a pig into a brain-dead ...
New moms suffering from postpartum depression turn to psychedelics for relief
84 women across the country [participated] in a clinical trial that hopes to produce the first federally approved psychedelic treatment ...
