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.
‘Impressive’ and ‘humbling’: Whale language skills equal and even surpass human speech capabilities in some ways
Two new studies have found eerily human-like sophistication in whale songs, challenging notions about our exceptionality and potentially shedding light ...
You’re over a cold but a cough lingers for weeks on end? Here’s why
Have you kicked a cold, bout of flu, RSV, or COVID recently—but can’t get rid of the cough? You’re not ...
No, rhino horns are not an aphrodisiac: Dangerous delusions of ‘traditional Chinese medicine’
I recently attended a showing of Oscar-nominated short films. Most were riveting, but none more so than 'The Last Ranger,' ...
Trump-Kennedy NIH shutting down 40+ grants investigating vaccine hesitancy
The National Institutes of Health will cancel or cut back dozens of grants for research on why some people are reluctant ...
Viewpoint: Facing a mega-threat from China, America’s approach to regulating AI is ‘mostly nonsense’
China’s tech industry recently gave the U.S. tech industry — and along with it, the stock market — a rude ...
From claims that Jews kill children to make matzo to accusations that Haitian immigrants are devouring pets, blood libel is a nightmare that never ends
One of the oldest and most widespread versions of [incendiary storytelling] is about Jews, especially how they kill Christian children ...
Viewpoint: US biotechnology innovation efforts dim with biomanufacturing a key laggard
The United States has been the undisputed innovator and leader in biology and biotechnology. Molecular biology and genetic engineering were ...
Humans are in the crosshairs of a potential bird flu pandemic. In the age of RFK, Jr., are we prepared?
Scientists are increasingly concerned about a potential bird flu pandemic. The question is, given all the enduring uncertainty around the ...
Viewpoint: Saving the world by having more babies? Time to shut down Peter Thiel’s delusionary wealthy couple
On Tuesday, the Washington Post’s Style section published a profile of Simone and Malcolm Collins, a Pennsylvanian couple who’ve been ...
Turning back the aging clock: Billions of dollars are probably being wasted on genetic manipulation techniques that likely won’t work
A new study from a team of biologists and epidemiologists at UC San Diego is calling into question [the] core ...
Do you have a ‘favorite child’? Here’s how genes, birth order and other factors influence that
The idea of parental favoritism might seem inherently subjective (what do we mean by “favorite,” exactly?) but researchers have developed ...
Viewpoint: Britain is increasingly concerned as Trump indiscriminately cuts science programs. Here’s why
Scientific research and innovation advance our economic, social and cultural wellbeing, provide health benefits and are key to a sustainable ...
Viewpoint: Cod liver oil and vitamin A—RFK. Jr.’s dangerous alternative recommendations to a vaccine to prevent and treat measles could cause brain damage
As a measles outbreak in West Texas continues to grow, the response from US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert ...
7 widely-embraced science “facts” that are dead wrong and threaten our health and prosperity
1.) If something wasn’t established in a peer reviewed, double-blind study, it hasn’t been robustly established. ... 2.) Fluoridated drinking ...
Is intelligent life a ‘once in a universe’ likelihood? Recalibrating the possibility of extraterrestrial life
A popular model of evolution concludes that it was incredibly unlikely for humanity to evolve on Earth, and that extraterrestrial ...
Turmoil at RFK, Jrs.’ HHS. Two weeks into the job, top spokesperson resigns claiming the recent appointee is bungling the measles outbreak response
[HHS chief spokesperson Thomas Corry's] sudden departure was prompted by growing disagreement with Kennedy and his principal deputy chief of ...
Iowa becomes first state to remove explicit civil rights protection fot transgender people
[P]otesters and Democrats tried without success this week to persuade Republican lawmakers to reconsider, reflected how much the discourse over ...
Viewpoint: Anatomy of junk science—Dissecting yet another attempt by activist scientists to ‘link’ vaccines to autism
A newly published study is being widely circulated, purportedly showing a link between vaccines and autism. A closer look at ...
Love, sex and Ozempic: Will GLP-1 drugs give you a lift?
Millions of Americans are now taking Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound—a class of drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists—to treat ...
What does it mean to say an animal has consciousness? What about AI?
Consciousness is a private affair. There is no way of directly knowing what it is like to be another. We ...
It’s axiomatic among environmentalists that plastic packaging is a sustainability disaster. Hard science and life-cycle analysis say that’s not true
Plastic packaging can have substantially smaller environmental impacts—including 70% lower greenhouse gas emissions—compared to other packaging materials, according to a ...
‘Not unusual’: RFK, Jr. defends taking no action to curb surge in measles cases. Here’s why he is dangerously wrong
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has said that immunizations against measles and some other infectious diseases are unnecessary and risky. ...
Why the 3-D revolution has stalled
The so-called “disruptive” technology that is 3D printing, now in its thirties, [seems] to be coming back into fashion. Yet, ...
Viewpoint: ‘The issue is fairness, not discrimination’: With the governor’s backing, Maine allows mediocre male pole vaulter to dominate the female division one year after their conversion
If Democrats want to know why so many voters abandoned them in November, they could take a gander at the ...
RFK, Jr. cancels third vaccine planning and scheduling meeting, furthering endangering roll out of annual protective shots
The Food and Drug Administration ... canceled a planned March 13 committee meeting to update next winter's flu shot. ...
Viewpoint: In his latest dangerous health action, RFK. Jr. blocks CDC from informing patients about the health benefits of vaccines and instead hyping rare side-effects
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to halt ...
Why do we remember some dreams and not others?
Humans sleep for approximately 230,000 hours over the course of their lives – that’s 26 years spent asleep. We primarily ...
