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.
BA.2.86: Current vaccines do not offer protection against new globally-spreading COVID variant
A highly mutated form of the coronavirus that threatens to be the most adept yet at slipping past the body’s ...
Viewpoint: Here’s what happens when conspiracy mongers try to rebrand themselves as “rational theorists”
Conspiracy theorists hate being called conspiracy theorists. After they try to rebrand themselves as “rational theorists,” hilarity ensues ...
Mapping the brain: 4,000+ genetic variants identified after reviewing 36,000 brain scans
The largest-ever study of brain genetics has identified over 4,000 genetic variants associated with brain structure ...
‘Disneyfication’ of science? Examining claim that trees ‘talk’ to each other
A group of researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada has now collected the results from a large number ...
Weight loss drugs like Ozempic are changing how we think about health — but we still don’t know how they work
Although the drugs seem safe, obesity medicine specialists call for caution because the obesity drugs must be taken indefinitely or ...
Video: Are we slowly being poisoned by food, drugs, chemicals and cell phones? Time for a science check up
Are we being poisoned by modern life? You’ll often hear terrifying allegations about everything from pesticide-laden food to cellphones to ...
Viewpoint: Artificial wombs remain ‘nothing more than a developmentally naïve pipe dream’
Artificial womb technology (AWT) sparked a media sensation back in 2017 and, since then, has drawn much debate ...
Viewpoint: ‘My body went haywire’ — One woman’s debilitating experience with long COVID
Despite the crystal-clear science on the damage covid-19 does to our bodies, medical settings have dropped mask requirements, so patients ...
Which is safer to smoke: Marijuana or tobacco?
Is inhaling marijuana smoke safer than inhaling smoke from tobacco? A majority of American adults say yes, according to a ...
‘Blue leg syndrome’: Yet another long COVID health problem
'Blue Legs' yet another long COVID: isolated case report that illustrates that POTS is part of the milieu of post-COVID ...
Suffering from postpartum depression? Newly-approved drug works in as few as three days
Because the pill works faster than other antidepressants and is taken for only two weeks, it may encourage more treatment ...
Convergence of AI and synthetic biology: Developing industrial goods and better medicines
The synergy of artificial intelligence (AI) and genetic engineering is ushering in a new era in biotechnology, with the potential ...
American Academy of Pediatrics says it will review evidence on safety of gender care and surgery for children, but keeps current treatment recommendations
The American Academy of Pediatrics backed gender-related treatments for children on Thursday, reaffirming its position from 2018 on a medical ...
How to raise oxytocin and improve mental health in only 5 minutes a day: Petting other people’s dogs
Evidence is accumulating that levels of the stress hormone cortisol drop in people after just 5 to 20 minutes spent ...
1 in 3 children at risk: Lead exposure in childhood linked to committing crimes as adults, correlation study claims
Higher exposure to lead in childhood is associated with a greater likelihood of criminality, a review of 17 studies has ...
Genetically-modified pig kidney transplants into live patients may be next in wake of successful transplants into brain-dead patients
Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham published a peer-reviewed study showing that modified pig kidneys performed complex life-sustaining ...
What explains Homo sapiens’ huge brains? Ancient climate change played a role
Climate change may have contributed to the increase in the brain size of human ancestors, a new study suggests ...
Wegovy’s surprising side effect? Lowered risk of stroke and heart attacks
Wegovy, a weight-loss drug from Novo Nordisk, also helps prevent heart attacks and stroke in people at high risk, according ...
Viewpoint: Dr. AI? Artificial intelligence on a path to diagnose conditions and prescribe treatments directly to a patient without a physician
The inevitable question isn’t so much if but when these artificial intelligence devices can step into the shoes of doctors ...
Viewpoint: Bringing the mammoth back — Is it time to slow down de-extinction mania?
De-extinction is the science of restoring lost species and it has been in the news, sporadically, for decades ...
Podcast: DNA cancer screening tests are cheap — so why are so few people taking them?
Cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the U.S. Tests for genetic risk factors are inexpensive, and yet many ...
ChatGPT has just had a major update. What can it do now?
OpenAI just released an updated version of its text-generating artificial intelligence program. Here’s how GPT-4 improves on its predecessor ...
Infographic: Tree of Sex — Cataloging wild ways nature reproduces, from sex-changing fish to asexual lizards
From sex-changing fish to asexual lizards, these and many more species will be captured in a new sex database ...
Henrietta Lacks’ family reaches undisclosed settlement with ThermoFisher, ending 70-year long battle for compensation after using her cancer cells without permission
Descendants of Henrietta Lacks announced a lawsuit in October 2021 accusing Thermo Fisher Scientific of profiting from cancer cells that ...
Evolution of humor: Smiles are silent — so why do we hear laughter?
Laughter: Auditory signals were probably more effective in communicating feelings of mutual vulnerability during play ...
mRNA technology revolution: Battling sickle cell, aging and other tough-to-tackle diseases will soon be easier and cheaper
A technique for delivering mRNAs to blood stem cells should enable better and cheaper treatments for conditions from sickle cell ...
DNA-solved cold cases: How effective has forensic genetic genealogy been over the years?
The April 2018 arrest of Joseph DeAngelo, the Golden State Killer, is often considered the birth of forensic genetic genealogy ...
