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.
5 medical breakthroughs over the past year
From a pig kidney transplant to restoring genetic deafness, 2024 was a year full of medical breakthroughs. The breakthroughs include ...
‘We are going straight to Mars’: Musk pledges to reset US space exploration ambitions
Although SpaceX founder Elon Musk is known for outspokenness and controversial comments on his social media site X, ... he ...
Republican Congress planning to target transgender rights to promote what they call ‘common sense guardrails’
Republicans’ first response to Sarah McBride’s election to Congress was to ban her from using women’s restrooms throughout the Capitol ...
U.S. Surgeon General wants to put cancer warning labels on alcohol: Here’s why
Alcohol is the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States behind tobacco use and obesity. Alcohol consumption ...
COVID is 5 years old, and still causing havoc. What does the future hold?
SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 are not going away. The disease now is endemic. When we consider viruses that cause potentially acute ...
Growing concern as man-made ‘mirror life’ has the potential to wreak havoc on the immune system
Scientists are sounding new alarms about man-made organisms whose constituent molecules are mirror images of what's found in nature and ...
The ol’ org chart is getting an AI upgrade and businesses can not get it fast enough
Ever since the invention of the org chart in the 1850s, company structures have changed very little—they are hierarchical and ...
Genetically modified pig organ transplants may soon save thousands every year
Towana Looney can hardly contain her anticipation as she waits to get wheeled to an operating room at the NYU ...
‘People don’t always realize they are creating a human being and not a piece of furniture’: What’s the psychological health of the first generation of designer babies?
People who have children this way often place too much importance on genes while ignoring the environment. It’s like, “This ...
Viewpoint: Here’s why gene drives are crucial to fight malaria-carrying mosquitoes
Mosquitoes carry some of the world’s deadliest diseases ... but challenging geography, conflict, budgets, and insecticide resistance are among the ...
Breast cancer requires surgery, right? Not so fast
When a woman learns she has breast cancer, her reaction is often: take it out. Now doctors say that might ...
Lawyer set to become advisor to RFK Jr. if he’s approved as HHS director on record asking the FDA to revoke polio vaccine approval
The lawyer helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick federal health officials for the incoming Trump administration has petitioned the government ...
How close is AI to creating a catastrophic bio weapon—or causing other superhuman damage?
The release of ChatGPT ... set off fears that AI could soon be capable of surpassing human intellect—and with that ...
Can chimpanzees develop a human-like culture?
Chimpanzees may refine cultural behaviors over time, with advanced toolsets spreading through migrating females, suggesting early stages of cumulative culture ...
Dinosaurs got dumber over time. Could it happen to humans (is it already?)
Horned dinosaurs saw a decline in their intelligence, hearing, and sense of smell as they grew larger over the course ...
Can a transplanted organ bring with it a memory from a donor?
The question of whether transplanted organs can transfer memory has cropped up for many ... organs, but according to a ...
Why 2025 will be a turning point for AI
2025 will be a defining year for AI, shifting from generalized applications to enterprise-focused solutions. Businesses will refine their strategies ...
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 ...
