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.
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 ...
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 ...
What causes autism? It’s not vaccines, but a new study finds one driving factor
Just as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called for an investigation into debunked claims of vaccines causing autism, a massive new study ...
Viewpoint: ’He’s wrong’—RFK, Jr. invokes pseudo-science, falsely claims single target antigen vaccines ‘never worked’
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has expressed another unorthodox view on vaccines, with the long-time vaccine critic declaring that ...
Foreign entities are partnering with American tort forms to fund environmental lawsuits that undermine science and U.S. national security
One of the most insidious threats today is not on the battlefield, but in our courtrooms—where foreign entities are using ...
Human ‘bodyoids’: We will soon be able to manufacture brain-less human bodies to generate replacement organs
Why do we hear about medical breakthroughs in mice, but rarely see them translate into cures for human disease? ...
Viewpoint: ‘It’s going to get worse’: More than 12.6 million infants and children are highly susceptible to getting measles
The current measles outbreak, with more than 480 cases, largely in unvaccinated children, is gearing up to be the worst ...
Sahara Desert was once a lush oasis and home to a human mysterious lineage
The Sahara desert, once lush and green, during a time between 14,500 and 5,000 years ago, was also home to ...
Resurrecting dead species—Despite the hype over the dire wolf and the wooly mammoth, chorongenetics poses immense challenges
Colossal Biosciences, the biotech company behind [these] woolly mice [says the] eventual goal is to modify elephants with enough mammoth ...
Viewpoint: ‘Sending science backward’—MAGA fuels a culture war against life-saving mRNA vaccines
US health agency leadership and policymakers seem intent on undermining trust in mRNA, the technology that saved millions of lives ...
US dominance of artificial intelligence is threatened as China, France and others rush to join the AI development race
“Chinese models are catching up as far as performance to the US models,” [Vanessa Parli] adds, “but across the globe, ...
China’s Frankenstein? Controversial scientist He Jiankui who stirred a global debate by genetically modifying babies to prevent HIV disease now targets Alzheimer’s
International media has dubbed [He Jiankui] “China’s Frankenstein.” He has no academic affiliations. He declines to reveal where his funding ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr. finally conceded that the measles vaccine is ‘the most effective way to prevent its spread’—MAHA anti-vaccine activists are calling him a turncoat
For vaccine opponents, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appointment as secretary of health and human services represented something close to nirvana ...
Viewpoint: ‘This is Hollywood science, not real science’ — RFK, Jr.’s ‘plan’ to let avian flu ‘run through the flock’ courts a catastrophic, global pandemic
In two recent interviews on Fox News, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downplayed concerns about H5N1 avian influenza in the U.S., raising alarm among ...
Face science: Here’s why human faces look so different from our extinct Neanderthal cousins and chimpanzees, or primate relatives
In a new study, researchers have uncovered a fundamental difference in how human faces grow compared to those of our ...
Artificial General Intelligence: The billion dollar challenge of scaling up AI to AGI that would surpass human intelligence
[A] new report ... which queried 475 AI researchers and was conducted by scientists at the Association for the Advancement ...
Viewpoint: ‘People will die’—The dramatic fallout from indiscriminate cuts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Thousands of federal employees at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were notified early Tuesday morning that they were subject ...
