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.
Viewpoint: Revisiting first UNESCO director Julian Huxley’s embrace of eugenics
Julian Sorell Huxley was born in London in 1887, the eldest son of Julia Arnold, an educator, and Leonard Huxley, ...
Viewpoint: Here is what Trump’s order banning federal support for transcare gets wrong about the science of gender dysphoria
President Donald Trump's executive order, “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” ... promises to protect children from “destructive and ...
Musk’s brain streaming Neuralink is far from commercialization
[Neuralink] is not yet a commercial product. The current studies are small-scale—they are true experiments, explorations of how the device ...
Scientists and ethicists raise eugenic concerns about embryonic gene editing even when it could block diseases
To date, no attempts have been made to predict the consequences of altering specific variants associated with polygenic diseases. In ...
Viewpoint: ‘Broligarchs’ and the emerging age of tech authoritarianism
There’s a dominant narrative in the media about why tech billionaires are sucking up to Donald Trump: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, all ...
Running the modern IVF gauntlet—When is it time to give up?
That there are so many things that doctors can try now has made [in vitro fertilization] feel somewhat limitless. Andrea ...
‘Digital twins’: 3-D digital organs are poised to revolutionize medical treatments
“Digital twins” are the same size and shape as the real thing. They work in the same way. But they ...
Claims of living well past 100 turn out to be mostly bogus
The allure of extreme longevity has beckoned for centuries. Research careers and marketing campaigns have been built on the idea ...
Viewpoint: Courts challenge the contrived but growing relationship between trial lawyers and environmental activists
For a decade now, a brigade of climate zealots, flanked by their legal consiglieres, has been waging a shadow war ...
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 ...
