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.
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 ...
Unraveling the genetic mystery of autism
Until the 1970s, the prevailing belief in psychiatry was that autism was a consequence of bad parenting. In the 1940s, ...
100 years after the Scopes trial, creationist beliefs show no sign of waning
Some people thought the 1925 Scopes monkey trial marked a cultural defeat for biblical fundamentalism. But a century after what ...
‘Our brains aren’t just fancy computers’: AI is still no match for humans. Here’s why
In some ways, we do work like computers and use distributed networks of firing neurons in important ways. ... "I also ...
Ancient North American ancestry: Geneticist helps Pueblo tribe affirm its long-denied roots
Members of New Mexico’s Picuris Pueblo Tribal Nation have long told stories about having descended from ancient North American ancestors ...
‘I was a ticking time bomb’: Surgeons perform first-ever human bladder transplant
Surgeons in Southern California have performed the first human bladder transplant, introducing a new, potentially life-changing procedure for people with ...
‘Viewpoint: ‘Going full RFK, Jr’.—Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton promotes conspiracy theories about dental hygiene and breakfast cereal
[Ken] Paxton, the Texas Attorney General and Senate candidate ... idea of a good government cause is to sue ...
Will the U.S. lose a generation of young scientists as research projects are gutted
[Y]oung scientists represents the future of American science: the next innovators, mentors, and developers of lifesaving treatments. These cancellations were framed ...
COVID wet market nature origin theory gets a boost: The genetic trail of coronavirus origins
In a study published on [May 7, 2025], a team of researchers compared the evolutionary story of SARS with that of Covid 17 ...
Severe cases of autism on the rise? Another study contradicts RFK, Jr. claim
When Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the government’s new autism findings, he painted a grim ...
Georgia’s heartbeat law: Hospital says they must keep brain-dead woman on life support until the birth of the fetus
With [the mother's] due date still more than three months away, it could be one of the longest such pregnancies ...
RFK, Jr.’s FDA banning prescription cavity-preventing fluoride supplements used mostly by low income children
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has begun the process to eliminate fluoride drops and tablets prescribed to children to ...
‘No more dudes in dresses’: Pentagon implementing Defense Secretary Hegseth’s directive to purge 1,000 transgender military
The Pentagon will immediately begin moving as many as 1,000 openly identifying transgender service members out of the military and ...
Repairing a broken code of life: In CRISPR breakthrough, rewriting the misspelling of infant’s DNA cures him of rare liver disease
In a historic medical breakthrough, a child diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder has been successfully treated with a customized ...
Viewpoint: Screening embryos for diseases—slippery slope and the advantages of being rich
[D]espite [Noor] Siddiqui’s efforts to cast herself as a modern-day Jonas Salk, [Orchid Health genetic screening services are] not a ...
$500 million universal flu vaccine: Moonshot-like project proposes to use 50-year old technology that likely won’t work
Dubbed Generation Gold Standard, the project is aimed at creating a flu shot that doesn't have to be updated every ...
South Korea’s Haenyeo—Did these legendary women evolve to dive?
An island 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula is home to a unique and ...
