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.
Microplastics have been found in our lungs, blood and brain. Should we be concerned?
Scientists are just beginning to understand the effect plastic in the body has on health, but research continues to push ...
Abortion pill remains legal for now, but ruling on technical grounds keeps door open for possible future ban
The justices’ unanimous ruling, in F.D.A. v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, rejected a challenge to the most commonly used abortion ...
COVID origin mystery persists: Here are arguments for and against animal-to-human and Wuhan lab leak theories
The origin of the Covid virus remains the pandemic’s biggest mystery, with U.S. officials remain the most divided ...
Want to learn more about how genes have shaped your personality and health — but you’re wary of genetic data leaks? There may be a solution
New encryption method published in GENETICS allows researchers to maintain human data confidentiality without decryption in genomic analyses ...
Viewpoint: Artificial wombs could help preserve the fragile life of preemies, but more tests are necessary to understand if the hope eclipses the known science
A technology meant to help severely premature infants raises questions of inequity and may someday threaten parents’ rights to make ...
Common belief about periods: Women are less mentally agile during menstruation. Fact: Reaction times improve
Belief about periods: Women are less mentally agile during menstruation. Fact: Reaction times improve, according to new research ...
Viewpoint: Adaptogens — Don’t waste your money on the latest snake oil supplements
Now we have another term to add to the lexicon of dubious health claims – the “adaptogen”. The most common ...
Ban upheld prohibiting transgender swimmer Lia Thomas from competing in women’s races
Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas failed in her challenge against rules that stop her from competing in elite women’s races because ...
Religion evolves, too: Before modern Christianity, God had a wife
In addition to inscriptions, researchers have found a number of small female ceramic figurines indicating God had a wife ...
‘Anthropocene’ debate: Scientists disagree over whether we are in a new geological epoch, and here’s why it matters
A panel of scientists rejected the term “Anthropocene” to describe a period in which humans have profoundly impacted the environment ...
Sniffing out pseudoscience is easier than you think — Here are 7 key ways
You can easily identify pseudoscience because it tries to appear scientific; however, its claims lack evidence ...
What’s in a name? Elephants, along with parrots and dolphins, appear to identify each other
Wild African elephants address each other with name-like calls, a rare ability among nonhuman animals, according to a new study ...
US girls are getting their periods younger than ever before. What’s causing early puberty?
Researchers say multiple factors are likely impacting early puberty, including obesity, stress and endocrine-disrupting hormones ...
Viewpoint: ‘The central tenets of progressivism are actually autistic traits’ — Anti-vaxxer Toby Rogers’ latest trope links vaccines to progressive political views and Trumpism
Antivax transphobe Toby Rogers got the bright idea that many of the central tenets of progressivism are actually autistic traits ...
Gender and precaution: Is it just a stereotype that men are more likely to take unnecessary risks?
A new study from The University of Western Australia and Edith Cowan University has found evidence of what’s long been ...
COVID lab leak hypothesis gains traction again — Broad Institute molecular biologist cites 5 key arguments
Although how the pandemic started has been hotly debated, a growing volume of evidence — gleaned from public records released ...
‘It’s the (number of) calories, stupid!’: USDA report, top food expert challenge claims that ultra-processed foods driving obesity epidemic
Ultra-processed foods — demonized for years for their supposed effect on our waistlines — do not actually make people fat, ...
Making CRISPR treatments work for everyone: Genetic data that underpins key gene editing system has a big diversity problem
There’s a significant impediment to maximizing CRISPR’s potential for developing novel therapies: the lack of diversity in genetics research ...
Battling disease: What happens when you blend generative AI and CRISPR gene editing?
Much as ChatGPT generates poetry, a new A.I. system devises blueprints for microscopic mechanisms that can edit your DNA ...
Scientists face increasing harassment and criticism of their work. Do they need our protection?
As researchers increasingly face many kinds of attack over their work, there is debate about how to support and protect ...
Tired of doing household chores? Now you can buy a robot to do it
1X Technologies has already created a humanoid robot that is in the workplace. Next year, they will launch a robot ...
Treating disease with electricity? There are potential benefits to hacking the body’s circuitry
In the early 2010s, electricity seemed poised for a hostile takeover of your doctor’s office. Research into how the nervous ...
How and why did dogs develop ‘puppy eyes’?
Large and droopy “puppy-dog eyes” did not just evolve in domesticated dogs to appeal to humans, as scientists had previously thought, according ...
Viewpoint: Will the public be able to afford one-time gene therapy for hemophilia just approved by the FDA?
Science may be advancing rapidly but as Crispr therapies start heading to the clinic the funding of research seems to ...
Cannabis and anxiety: Some people self medicate while others claim it causes more problems. What does the latest research say?
A study of cannabis users suffering from anxiety found that they reported reductions in anxiety over the study period ...
Viewpoint: Will RFK Jr.’s anti-vax beliefs thwart his run for presidency?
Robert Kennedy Jr. is obsessed with the notion that vaccines cause autism, particularly that thimerosal, causes autism ...
‘We are machines—but astoundingly complex ones’: Philosopher Daniel Dennett on how human consciousness evolved
Daniel Dennett believed that we are, in a sense, machines—but astoundingly complex ones, the result of millions of years of ...
