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.
Ice Storm of 1998 may have altered DNA of unborn babies
Epigenetics has been used and abused in many ways - can it tell researchers that an expectant mother lived without ...
Fly’s genome helps identify genes involved in human neurological diseases
The combination of fly genetics and genomics with human genome knowledge enables rapid identification of human disease-causing mutations, including those ...
Ebola crisis raises dilemma over releasing vaccines without usual evaluation
Normally it takes years to prove a new vaccine is both safe and effective before it can be used in ...
Can spider genes be genetically engineered to make eco-friendly cars?
Scientists are looking to create genetically engineered spider webs—which pound for pound is stronger than steel—to make products that might ...
60-million-year-old fossils found in China revolutionizing evolution of complex life
Three spherical fossils discovered in China are believed to be from the world's earliest animals, dating back 600 million years ...
Stress caused by poverty reduces mom’s ability to nurture—and may be passed on in genes
From the inside, nothing in the world feels more powerful than our impulse to care for helpless children. But new ...
Why the US was so unprepared to handle Ebola
It was a small victory in a grim and runaway catastrophe. In July, Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, both American ...
Is the search for “IQ genes” a fool’s errand?
Science writer David Dobbs has definitively described the voracious appetite of the "selfish gene" meme, pointing out that the notion of individual ...
Ashkenazi Jews descended from Khazarian converts? One Arab view of the evidence
Many of those interested in studying the conspiracy have become convinced that the only way to explain the depth of ...
Persistence of the massive microbiome myth
Scientists and layman alike have long touted the estimate that microbial cells outnumber humans by 10 to 1. While that ...
Can the same regulatory systems that now oversee GMOs work for synthetic biology?
As synthetic biology is poised to leave labs and enter our lives, questions about regulation are cropping up. Can existing ...
Uncovering human history in Ethiopia, world’s oldest graveyard
Charles Darwin knew humans evolved from apes, but he died before the strongest fossils that prove our connection with primates ...
Prenatal genetic testing not appropriate choice for all
A clinical trial led by UC San Francisco has found that when pregnant women are educated about their choices on ...
How misleading headlines distort scientific studies
Last week I gave a talk in Brazil called Why Is It So Hard To Think About The Brain?, Well, no ...
Developing new antibiotics from human microbiome
No novel classes of antibiotic drugs have been produced for 25 years and, though scare stories about the consequences of emerging ...
How the world has fumbled the Ebola crisis
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently projected that if trends continue unimpeded, cases of Ebola could pass the million ...
Do you drink too much alcohol? It’s partly in the genes
How people perceive and taste alcohol depends partly on genetic factors, and that influences whether they "like" and how much ...
Apes R’ Us: Online misogynists wrongly hide behind the veil of ‘human nature’
As celebrity nudes were leaked online, hackers and their supporters justified the behavior by claiming that men are hardwired to ...
Who makes better space travelers–introverts or extroverts?
Is the long-run future of civilization to select-for those who are introverts? Is intro/extroversion genetically mediated? How might extended space ...
A new kind of sex? Strange micro-organism makes imperfect clones of itself
Oxytricha trifallax lives in ponds all over the world. Under an electron microscope it looks like a football adorned with tassels ...
Genetically engineered E.coli used for clean, efficient propane production
A team of scientists has transformed E.coli bacteria into a propane factory. In their Nature magazine article, researchers from the University of Turku (Finland) ...
Mothers contribute more to human gene pool than fathers
Mothers outnumbered fathers throughout much of human history, a new DNA analysis of people around the world shows. The genetic ...
Cancer genome sequencing advancing personalized treatment
As the cost of DNA sequencing plummets, the possibility of testing all cancer patients’ tumor genomes is becoming a reality ...
Stem cells pinpoint how mutation common in East Asians increases heart disease risk
More than 500 million people worldwide carry a genetic mutation that disables a common metabolic protein called ALDH2. The mutation, which predominantly ...
Biohackers turning mushrooms into furniture show promise, concerns about synthetic biology
How do you transform mushrooms into furniture, or re-wire algae to conduct electricity? Biohacking, the practice of rewiring the biology ...
What does increasing life expectancy mean for future society?
If current trends persist, we can expect that Americans born in the year 2084 will live to be 100. That's up ...
Can color-changing flowers quell fears about GMOs?
In a couple years, if you’re at the florist and are trying to decide between red roses or yellow roses, ...
