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.
2000%? RFK, Jr. claims that chronic disease in the U.S. has skyrocketed in 20 years. Here’s why that’s absurd
“We’ve got the highest chronic disease burden of any country in the world. When my uncle was president, 3 percent ...
Animals have developed a mind-boggling variety of ways to become male or female.
[S]o far, researchers have uncovered a dizzying array of exceptions to the XX/XY “rule:” birds and butterflies that use the ZW system, in ...
Leveraging RFK, Jr. vaccine disinformation, anti-vaccine grifters blame measles on bioweapons, sell fake ‘AI created’ supplement cures
Anti-vaccine activists with close ties to US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are falsely claiming that the measles public health ...
Here’s a visual tour of what makes the human brain distinct from our ape relatives
The human brain isn't just distinguished by its problem-solving abilities. It's also designed to deeply process emotions and social interactions, ...
Less than 1,300—Our human ancestors were on the verge of extinction one million years ago
[A] groundbreaking study published in the journal Science sheds new light on a dramatic event that nearly erased humans from existence ...
Does pornography alter your brain?
Statistics show pornography to be commonplace: A 2018 study found that 91.5% of men and 60.2% of women had consumed it ...
Viewpoint: Surging anti-immigration sentiment helps revive America’s eugenicist impulses
In a moment when the experiment of the United States is teetering on the brink, the Trump administration is weaponizing ...
AI race: Can Europe catch up to China and the U.S.?
In October 2024, Jensen Huang, the CEO of AI chipmaker Nvidia, commented that the European Union (EU) lags far behind the U.S ...
Cancer death rates continue their quarter century decline, but ethnic disparities remain
Progress has been made in reducing overall cancer mortality, largely driven by sustained declines in lung cancer. Cancer mortality declined ...
‘Super horses’: Newly engineered gene-edited equestrian racers are faster and more agile
[S]cientists are using the technology to improve traits in domestic animals. Argentina’s scientists have recently achieved a groundbreaking milestone in ...
Convergent evolution: How complex brains developed independently in humans, birds and reptiles
Fernando García-Moreno is an evolutionary and developmental neurobiologist. He says for a long time there's been a debate about how ...
Anorexia cases in the U.S. have doubled in recent years, and treatments remain elusive
Over 10,000 Americans die from eating disorders every year, according to the National Association for Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. Such prolonged ...
(Positive) eugenics is increasingly fashionable — The movement for gene manipulation is soaring among those who can afford it
In the United States, despite more than $1 billion invested in fertility-focused start-ups in the past decade, there is remarkably ...
Biotechnology breakthroughs in medicine surge
Biotech breakthroughs are lighting up new ways to care for our health. Researchers are using smart ideas, from gene editing ...
The Longevity Business Is Booming—and Its Scientists Are Clashing”
[Leonard Guarente's pet field of improving human longevity] has moved from the fringes to science’s hot center. It’s drawn billions ...
Humans may need to evolve faster than nature intended if civilization hopes to survive. What are our chances?
Throughout most of human history, evolution progressed slowly. Small genetic changes took thousands of years to permeate populations. Natural selection ...
Here is the skinny on Lilly’s weight loss pill that could be a blockbuster alternative to Ozempic and other GLP-1 diabetes and weight loss drugs
Orforglipron, developed by Eli Lilly, represents a significant advancement in the treatment of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Unlike traditional ...
12 far out theories of how the universe works
12. The Ekpyrotic Universe Theory Providing an alternative to the widely accepted Big Bang theory, the ekpyrotic universe theory suggests ...
National security challenge: China poised to overtake the U.S. as the global leader in biotechnology innovation
The comprehensive report from the bipartisan National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB) delivers a “sobering, even frightening,” conclusion: that China is ...
99.7% sure says one scientist but others hedge: A distant watery planet possibly brimming with life
"These are the first hints we are seeing of an alien world that is possibly inhabited," [Nikku Madhusudhan of the ...
AI therapy shows promise in addressing depression at less expense and equal efficacy than a human therapist
uaThe first clinical trial of a therapy bot that uses generative AI suggests it was as effective as human therapy ...
Where, when and how did humans develop the capacity for language?
[A]ccording to a new study, for a huge chunk of the time that our species has roamed the Earth, we ...
Marriage is bad for your health? The widowed, divorce and never-married have a 50% or lower risk of dementia
For the most part, science has found that marriage comes with health benefits—lower heart disease risk, longevity (especially for men), lower risk ...
Fighting over the science facts: Legislative battles over PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ intensify
As health and environmental concerns about forever chemicals mount nationally, New Mexico joins a small but growing number of states ...
Viewpoint: We have a successful playbook to beat measles. RFK, Jr. is doing mostly the opposite
There is well-known playbook for stopping measles outbreaks. It takes hard work, because measles is so contagious that 9 of out of ...
Tribalism and politics: America, a surge in xenophobia and a path forward
I wish that xenophobia were not a foundational characteristic of our evolved psychology, But it is (see Wilson, 2019). To the best ...
Music lover? It’s in your genes
A new twin study published in Nature Communications provides evidence that how much people enjoy music is partly influenced by genetic ...
