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.
Center for Science in the Public Interest: Here’s why you should not waste your money on cold- and flu-fighting supplements
In one study, researchers bought and analyzed 30 supplements that were being marketed on Amazon for immune health. According to the ...
The dangerous allure of immortality: Why death is critical to live a fulfilling life
Most of the longevity movement is not really about immortality but rather about extending life and limiting the damaging effects ...
RFK, Jr.’s NIH blocks funding of all research into vaccine hesitancy and is poised to withdraw support of mRNA vaccines
The Trump administration is slashing long-standing areas of research funded by the National Institutes of Health, claiming they no longer ...
No, more and more people are not living past 100
The allure of extreme longevity has beckoned for centuries. Research careers and marketing campaigns have been built on the idea ...
Women really do live longer — here’s why
Women outlive men, by something of a long shot: In the United States, women have a life expectancy of about 80, compared ...
Viewpoint: University of California-Berkeley administration did nothing when radical feminist group excused the raping and mutilating of Israeli women
[S]tudents [at the University of California-Berkeley] ... are in a required comparative-literature class that mandates they attend [a lecture entitled] ...
Cancer rates are falling around the world, especially for men—except for among younger people. Here is the best guess as to why
[R]esearchers have found that young people around the world are getting many different kinds of cancer at alarmingly high rates...Why ...
Dating apps are flukey. Can AI help save them from oblivion, or will it lead to their demise?
Late last year, Hinge CEO Justin McLeod promised the app would soon be using the tech for everything from making ...
‘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 ...
