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.
Sexual selection: How evolution is making men taller and larger while female growth only edges up
According to a new study, men around the world have gained height and weight twice as fast as women over ...
Longevity: Good habits or good genes?
When it comes to longevity, does it matter more whether you have “good genes” or “good habits?” While the factors ...
‘Baby Project’ scandal: Disgraced tycoon Greg Lindberg and fertility clinics embroiled in controversy
At his peak, [Greg] Lindberg controlled several insurance companies and had a net worth of more than $1 billion. Over ...
No, black newborns under the care of white doctors do not die at twice the rate of whites, as some controversial studies have attempted to claim. The difference is zero
The racial gap in infant mortality is a pressing public health concern ... [However, we] find that the magnitude of ...
Genetic diversity and evolution: How our DNA is mixed and passed down during reproduction
Scientists at deCODE genetics, a subsidiary of Amgen, have created a comprehensive map of how human DNA is mixed and ...
How you can positively influence the chances of getting pregnant and having an baby
It’s hard to explain unless you’re in it. It’s not like you go into a fertility clinic imagining you’ll spend ...
Cryogenics and the promise of a second chance at life—Fast-approaching future or scam?
A German cryonics start-up is offering a chance at a second life for the cost of a sports car. Is ...
Viewpoint: Synthetic chemical methylene blue used to clean fish tanks is the latest quack concoction promoted by Health and Human Sources secretary designate RFK, Jr.
[Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.], President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, was recently filmed ...
‘Salmiak’: Genetics explain a newly-identified ‘sally licorice’ cat color
A genetic mutation has been creating some striking cats with designer coats in a dazzling shade called “salty licorice”: tuxedo ...
Trump’s Ideological corruption of science: Political appointees censor formerly independent CDC report documenting soaring bird flu cases
Trump administration political appointees have taken steps in recent weeks to exert unprecedented influence over the Centers for Disease Control ...
Anti-vaccination hysteria impact: Hospital flu-related visits surge to highest level in 15 years
Levels of influenza nationwide are now at the highest they have been since the peak of the 2009 swine flu ...
Offspring from two males? CRISPR experiment works in mice opening controversial frontier
The concept of biological reproduction between same-sex individuals in mammals has always been deemed impossible. However, scientists have now successfully ...
How much did the Neanderthals penchant for cannibalism lead to their extinction?
Neanderthals went extinct about 30,000 years ago. They lived successfully in Europe, Asia, and Africa for hundreds of thousands of ...
Is the Alzheimer’s research community rife with fraud?
Over the past 25 years, Alzheimer’s research has suffered a litany of ostensible fraud and other misconduct by world-famous researchers ...
Viewpoint: Trump has sided with the cigarette industry in blocking a proposed FDA ban of menthol cigarettes. Why that will kill black people?
Today, January 24, 2025, the Trump administration extinguished a long-awaited ban on menthol cigarettes, derailing decades of public health efforts ...
Microplastics are bad for your brain
Tiny plastic particles pervade nearly every corner of our planet, from remote ocean trenches to pristine polar ice fields. These ...
Viewpoint: Hostile takeover—Here’s the damage we can expect to America’s health if Dr. Oz is confirmed as the next head of the $1.5 trillion medicare and medicaid agency
[Dr. Mehmet] Oz garnered a number of critics over the years for his statements on [his] show. Most notably, 10 ...
Viewpoint: New York Times cancels unorthodox columnist Pamela Paul known for challenging ideological orthodoxy
I am pretty sure I predicted this, though I’m not going to trawl back through my posts to see for ...
Breakthrough technologies: Global poll highlights embrace of AI in health care, gene editing and cell based meat, although optimism of U.S. respondents lags
Scientific advances will only succeed if people are willing to embrace them. Leaps by Bayer (the company’s impact investment arm) ...
A guide for pediatricians talking to skeptical parents about vaccines
The New York Times spoke to pediatricians across the country who said they were looking for better ways to address ...
Will Trump be successful in killing USAID? Civil war erupts in Congress over the future of America’s global humanitarian agency
In a letter to Congress, obtained by the Associated Press, [Marco] Rubio said he had designated Trump ally Peter Marocco ...
Controversial first post Roe vs. Wade prosecution: Louisiana court indicts New York physician for mailing abortion pills into its state
The cross-border abortion wars escalated Friday, when a Louisiana grand jury indicted Margaret Carpenter, a physician from New York, for ...
‘Women are biologically female’: Trump’s executive order will not be so easy to implement, and here’s why
One of President Trump’s first-day executive orders proclaimed that “women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.” It sounds ...
Bird flu outbreak edging towards becoming a full-fledged pandemic
When bird flu [H5N1] first struck dairy cattle a year ago, it seemed possible that it might affect a few ...
Aluminum microtrace hysteria: RFK. Jr. and his followers demonize vaccines … but one slice of American cheese contains 10x more than 6 months of childhood shots
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has often trained his criticisms of vaccines on a common ingredient: aluminum, which he has suggested is ...
The fake call for ‘choice’ in medicine: RFK, Jr. is normalizing science-rejecting vaccine opponents
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. doesn’t want to talk about his past as a leader of the anti-vaccine movement. But as ...
MAGA and MAHA: Republicans find common ground with former leftist alt-med, holistic-medicine embracing moms
There has been a cultural sea change over the last year when it comes to health in America. It is ...
