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.
With a moon base expected by 2030, engineering space fuel is just one of many challenges scientists face
Scientists have developed an energy source which could allow astronauts to live on the Moon for long periods of time ...
Lab-grown babies: Synthetic eggs and sperm get closer to reality
The technique used to potentially develop lab-grown babies could hold the power to provide a novel treatment option for human ...
Light-therapy beds? Ozone generators? Rich biohackers integrate longevity-boosting gadgets into their homes
Light-therapy beds. Infrared saunas. Ozone generators. These homeowners have infused health and wellness into their properties, and then some ...
Is religion an artifact of small-brained superstition or a mark of our evolutionary advancement?
By about ten to seven thousand years ago, modern Homo sapiens were domesticating animals and plants and creating stable civilizations ...
Men were hunters, women were gatherers? New research challenges early assumed gender roles
New research contradicts the common belief that in foraging societies, only men hunt and women gather, revealing that women actively ...
Will ban on fruit-flavored vape and e-cigarettes bolster smoking addictions?
According to the Royal College of Physicians, the potential harm from vaping e-cigarettes is only about 5 per cent of ...
Fountain of youth? Understanding underlying aging mechanisms could expedite hunt for longevity treatments
How we age: Insights into the underlying mechanisms of aging are revolutionizing the hunt for longevity treatments ...
Ancient population crash: How humans almost went extinct
Humans may have been driven to the brink of extinction within the past million years, new research suggests ...
Long COVID cure? Can this debilitating illness be treated in just 3 days? A Norwegian study concludes ‘yes’
This treatment program is to be conducted in Øystese along Norway’s Hardangerfjord and has shown promising results for people with ...
Why has there been a surge in number of young women with breast cancer?
A study published last week in JAMA Network Open showed cancers are on the rise for younger Americans under 50, ...
Cold snap: How plummeting temperatures a million years ago almost killed off Europe’s earliest humans
A period of extreme cooling in western Europe may have driven away the continent’s earliest human species, researchers say ...
Grandiosity or self loathing: Understanding the sufferings of narcissists
Chances are you've encountered a narcissist, and they looked nothing like Trump, Musk or Modi. Up to 6 percent of ...
Why do humans have large brains? It may be because humans begin having sex later in life than other mammals
A very brainy biologist has devised a computer model that recreates the development of our cognitive contraption ...
Skin vision: How bizarre hogfish that ‘sees with its skin’ can help us develop robotic limbs and self-driving cars
Without a mirror, it can be hard to tell if you're blushing, or have spinach in your teeth. But one ...
Can you smell when it’s about to rain?
“We can smell different things both before, during, and after it rains,” researcher Anja Røyne says ...
Challenging the Africa human origin hypothesis: Turkish fossils suggest apes and humans may have shared earlier European ancestry
Human and ape ancestors arose in Europe: A newly described fossil suggests that the ancestor of humans and apes arose ...
Video: ‘Our brains love pictures’ — Lebanese teenage savant recites all 206 bones of the body in random order
Our brain is a super machine capable of learning the most incredible things. And with practice and repetition, you can ...
Squid thoughts: Scientists genetically-engineer glass-like cephalopod with brain that glows when it thinks
A team at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) has successfully engineered an albino strain of the hummingbird bobtail squid, Euprymna ...
Traumatic brain injuries can damage short-term memory. A potential solution? It’s shocking
More than 1.5 million people in the U.S. sustain a TBI each year. Common causes include falls, motor vehicle accidents, ...
Viewpoint: With climate change boosting temperatures, we should get used to sweating
Perspiration is vital to life. It cools our bodies and hydrates our skin; it manages our microbiome and emits chemical ...
Video: Glass see-through squid with ‘demon-like’ red eyes swims in the deep waters off the coast of Alaska
The see-through cephalopod was spotted by researchers exploring the deep sea surrounding Alaska's Aleutian Islands ...
Video: This extremely rare baby giraffe was born without spots
A baby giraffe was born at Brights Zoo in Limestone, Tennessee, without any patterns! Zoo director David Bright joins TODAY ...
Why can humans speak but monkeys can’t? It may be due to this one brain quirk
Speech is unique to humans, but most of the brain structures involved in speech production are also present in Old ...
Is there such a thing as male menopause?
Experts disagree on whether a male menopause actually exists. A Norwegian professor believes that the mid-life changes affecting men and ...
Male libido: Promising early research zeroes in on brain circuitry that controls sexual interest—in mice
A single hardwired brain circuit might be responsible for male sexual drive, a new mouse study reports. Researchers have singled ...
While overall rate of cancer is going down, it’s on the rise in young Americans. Why?
Some of the biggest increases were seen in women and in younger people diagnosed with gastrointestinal and breast cancers ...
This Pink Floyd recording was made with the most complex instrument on Earth: The brain
This research aims to develop technology that lets patients who have lost the ability to speak communicate more naturally ...
