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: I took the exa-cel treatment for sickle cell disease. My symptoms ‘virtually disappeared overnight’
Exa-cel, the first CRISPR-based treatment to win approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, following the UK’s approval ...
Determining dementia risk: 21-point Brain Care Score predicts chances of dementia and stroke later in life
A new tool named the Brain Care Score, or BCS, may help you assess your risk of developing dementia or ...
Size isn’t everything: Brain connections and neuron wiring contribute more to human intelligence than volume
Human brains are bigger than those of our primate relatives, but evidence from extinct human ancestors suggests brain size isn't ...
Extending dog lifespans? Next wave of longevity drugs aim to add years to pet lives
Scientists have been chasing after drugs that might stave off this heartbreak by extending the lives of our canine companions ...
Breathing on Mars: AI-powered ‘robot chemist’ could analyze materials on other planets and figure out how to create oxygen
A robot chemist powered by artificial intelligence could solve the puzzle of providing oxygen to humans on Mars ...
How Casgevy came to be: How researchers found gene editing targets for newly-approved sickle cell drug
The world’s first commercial gene-editing treatment is set to start changing the lives of people with sickle-cell disease ...
Viewpoint: ‘Following sensationalism’ — How media distort science, influencing courts and regulators
It’s time for scientific bodies and institutions to more forcefully weigh in when science is too far behind media and ...
‘We’ve got miraculous therapies for ‘bubble boy disease’ that don’t fit in anyone’s business model’: Mainstream care elusive for most patients because of high costs
Hataałii Tiisyatonii “HT” Begay was born with a form of severe combined immunodeficiency, or SCID, which meant he had virtually ...
CRISPR moonshot: FDA approves first-ever US gene-edited based therapy, Casgevy, to treat sickle cell disease
December 8 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved two milestone treatments, Casgevy and Lyfgenia, representing the first cell-based gene ...
Rethinking the ‘little brain’: The cerebellum finally has its moment, recognized as a driver of higher human intelligence
Researchers are realizing that the 'little brain' or cerebellum expanded during evolution and contributes to the capacities unique to humans ...
Better than Ozempic? Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro helps patients shed more pounds faster than rival weight loss drug, data show
Overweight or obese adults lost more weight and shed pounds faster using Mounjaro than those taking Ozempic ...
‘Emotions are friends not foes’: Why we shouldn’t try to control negative emotions
Our beliefs about emotions—whether we feel that they’re good or bad, controllable or uncontrollable—affect our life and relationships ...
Canine neuroscience: Exploring what shapes dog personalities
Why do dogs behave so differently, even within their own breeds? Neuroscientist unlocking secrets of canine brain ...
We’re headed into sniffle season. Which at-home remedies for stuffy noses work?
Snotty, stuffy noses are the hallmark of cold and flu season, but some medications and at-home remedies may offer relief ...
First on the list for de-extinction? The famed dodo
The dodo, a flightless bird once hunted to extinction, is to be re-introduced by genetically engineering fresh ones ...
Can alcoholism be inherited?
Researchers found an overlapping association between alcohol abuse and psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia ...
Could another species of humans evolve? Yes, if we begin populating other planets
Along with Homo sapiens, at least eight other species of human have existed. Ultimately, just one species prevailed: Homo sapiens ...
‘Race is not a biological risk factor’: American Heart Association reassesses use of race in calculating risk of heart attacks and strokes
The cardiac-risk algorithm is an acknowledgment that, unlike sex or age, race identification in and of itself isn't a biological ...
Is death a singular event or a process?
Dying is in fact a process—one with no clear point demarcating the threshold across which someone cannot come back ...
Get headaches from red wine? Here’s the culprit
Is it sulfites, tannins or another culprit? Here’s what the research says about the migraines some people get with a ...
Radical advances in mind reading technology: How it’s possible to know what’s going on in someone else’s mind
How we think, feel and experience the world is a mystery, but technology may be starting to help us understand ...
House Republicans block pediatric care funding as war on gender-affirming care for transgender Americans escalates
House Republicans who waged fierce political battles over Obamacare and abortion have found a new focus: gender-affirming care ...
A green glowing monkey has been created in China. What were the scientists trying to learn?
Scientists in China have announced the birth of a primate like no other, with eyes that shined green and fingertips ...
Trust in scientists nosedives post pandemic with deeper slide among Republicans
A new Pew Research Center survey finds the share of Americans who say science has had a mostly positive effect ...
Artificial intelligence helps researchers unpack the mystery of how life on Earth began
AI is helping chemists unpick the mysteries around the origins of life and detect signs of it on other worlds ...
Why Vitamins A and E may do more harm than good
There are many important supplements that benefit people with specific deficiencies or certain health conditions; but research shows, and experts ...
Plastic paradox: ‘Dragging a net across the ocean to capture plastics may unintentionally trap the very organisms we aim to protect’
The ever-increasing problem of plastic pollution has prompted widespread efforts to combat it through innovative clean-up technologies. These advancements, however, ...
