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.
How many ways can a human laugh?
[People] can chortle, chuckle, titter, hoot, giggle, snigger, howl, or guffaw. This richness of language may suggest to some that ...
We are well on our way to automating science
Many scientists are already excited about AI. In a Nature survey of 1,600 scientists published in September 2023, more than half of ...
Memory of obesity: Fat cells are at war with your diet
Even after drastic weight loss, the body’s fat cells carry the ‘memory’ of obesity, research shows — a finding that ...
Does AI encourage violence? It comes close
In the year or so since large language models hit the big time, researchers have demonstrated numerous ways of tricking ...
Space sends brain cells haywire. How will that affect human space travel?
Space is not a very hospitable place.... Even when provided with oxygen and a stable temperature by their spacecraft, astronauts ...
Cooling the planet one balloon at a time? Geoengineering experiment worries scientists
Luke Iseman has a plan to cool the planet, inspired by a science fiction novel, using balloons full of heat-reflecting ...
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr ‘would put the public’s health in jeopardy: 75+ Nobel laureates urge Senate to reject HHS nominee
More than 75 Nobel Prize winners have signed a letter urging senators not to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect ...
Viewpoint: Feminist social justice post-modernist professor rejects reproductive ‘technological innovations’ because they promote ‘intersectional oppressions’
Gig work in childcare, nursing, and transportation; non-invasive prenatal testing; gene editing; and space expeditions can all be attributed to ...
Casgevy costs $2.2 million: First patient outside of a trial receives CRISPR cancer treatment
[T]he first medical treatment that uses the Nobel Prize-winning technology Crispr is now being given to patients. Called Casgevy, the ...
Even before the dinosaur era, mammal characteristics had begun to emerge
Mammals are familiar beasts. From a squirrel on a power line to a blue whale swimming through the sea, we ...
30 different medical conditions all trace to one gene
Scientists' investigation of a rare disorder in a single patient has solved [30 other] medical mysteries..... [P]patients had a wide ...
Astronauts will be spending longer stretches in space. How will that impact their brains?
Extended time in space is not exactly harmless to the human body. Radiation, altered gravity, sleep loss, can all take their toll on astronauts. Some ...
Scientists edge closer to perfecting bioprinting of human organs
Scientists have been fantasizing about the potential of precise 3D bioprinting for years. Just imagine, for example, if doctors could ...
Can depression be contagious?
The contagious nature of bacterial or viral infections like strep throat or influenza is well understood. You’re at risk of ...
Did the human brain evolve in sudden leaps as current theories suggest?
A detailed investigation of the expansion in human brains over 7 million years finds faster growth in modern humans and ...
Genetics and suicide—What’s the link?
More than 49,000 people will die by suicide this year. In 2023, the number of people dying by suicide was ...
Do DEI programs do the opposite of what they are intended to do? That’s what a startling Rutgers study concluded but the New York Times and Bloomberg spiked reports on it
In a stunning series of events, two leading media organizations—The New York Times and Bloomberg—abruptly shelved coverage of a groundbreaking study that raises ...
Why do humans kiss? Scientists now think they know, and it’s kind of creepy
Nobody knows when kissing emerged among humans. But the practice of plopping one's mouth on another human, whether in friendship ...
Two different human species almost certainly encountered each other on the banks of a Kenyan lake 1.5 million years ago
Muddy footprints left on a Kenyan lakeside suggest two of our early human ancestors were nearby neighbors some 1.5 million ...
Non-responders: Not losing weight on Wegovy or other GLP-1 drugs? You are not alone
In clinical trials, most participants taking Wegovy or Mounjaro to treat obesity lost an average of 15% to 22% of ...
Eating extra portions of salmon, beans and brown rice for protection from vitamin B1 deficiency? Here’s why it might not protect you from starving your brain
Scientists from EMBL Hamburg and CSSB have uncovered the molecular mechanisms behind how the body absorbs vitamin B1, potentially leading ...
How does our brain produce actions and thoughts?
The massive networks of neurons in our brains produce complex behaviors, like actions and thought. Now physicists want to understand ...
Longevity expert says tinkering with the aging process won’t help you live longer
“We don’t have an ageing intervention yet,” says [Dr Stuart Jay Olshansky] ... The only way humans are going to ...
We all bear the consequences of Neanderthal and Denisovan promiscuity
For much of our history, we coexisted with other members of our genus, and our prehistoric ancestors didn’t waste the ...
AI will influence human evolution. Here’s how
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more common and sophisticated, its effects on human lives and societies raises new questions. A ...
Excuse for eating dessert? Is your sweet tooth genetically determined?
New research has found that people with a genetic defect in their ability to digest sucrose eat less cake, sweets, ...
Viewpoint: Scientific American editor Laura Helmuth notorius for putting woke ideology ahead of science resigns under a cloud after a rant against Donald Trump
When magazines like Scientific American are run by ideologues producing biased dreck, it only makes it more difficult to defend ...
