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.
Birth control can impair fertility? One of many women’s health myths
Women’s health is often surrounded by misinformation, much of it passed down through word of mouth or amplified online. Myth ...
The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming: AI is overwhelmed with Russian and anti-Western disinformation
A new paper, published in Science on [January 22, 2026] predicts an imminent step-change in how disinformation campaigns will be ...
14 million child study debunks RFK, Jr. and COVID vaccine rejectionists claim that vaccinations were more dangerous than the infection
Health misinformation remains one of Covid’s most damaging legacies, with online falsehoods fuelling vaccine hesitancy, sowing mistrust and eroding public ...
The dawn of the era of the AI therapist
Given the clear demand for accessible and affordable mental-health services, it’s no wonder that people have looked to artificial intelligence ...
Viewpoint: Trump is undermining U.S. success in science and innovation
Ever since World War II, the US has been the global leader in science and technology—and benefited immensely from it ...
RFK Jr.’s CDC withdrawal of childhood hepatitis B vaccine will lead to cancer, liver cirrhosis and death
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ... [eliminated] a three-decade-old recommendation that all babies be given the hepatitis ...
What might be the consequences of designing your baby?
Soon, all of humanity will be customised in the same way to design the next generation. Gene editing may be ...
Viewpoint: Media and science misinformation are rampant and corrupting. Finland believes they have a solution
In an era defined by “fake news”, public trust in institutions is increasingly under threat, along with our ability to ...
10 Top Breakthrough Technologies
What will really matter in the long run? That's the question we tackle each year as we compile this annual ...
From Hitler to Richard III to Lenin, DNA can illuminate the lives, characters, and motivations of people long dead
Hitler left blood. Richard III left bones. Lenin left an entire body, preserved like a specimen. For centuries, historians and ...
AI is pushing us towards a carbon emissions climate disaster—but there is a remedy
As the world keeps warming and electricity bills take center stage in national politics, the data center boom will drive up US carbon emissions ...
Mandatory teaching of creationism: Oklahoma senator files state bill mandating teaching of ‘evolution science’
Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, is pushing back against an evolution-only curriculum in Oklahoma schools with newly filed Senate Bill 1868 ...
What will the human race look like centuries into the future? Here are three possibilities, and one is chilling
Everything around us seems to be changing at breakneck speed. Twenty years ago, smartphones were niche products. Twenty years before ...
Viewpoint: It’s grim. U.S. science after a year of RFK, Jr. and Trump
More than 7,800 research grants terminated or frozen. Some 25,000 scientists and personnel gone from agencies that oversee research. Proposed ...
Viewpoints: Republicans lean into MAHA ‘wellness agenda’ to prevent midterm losses as Trump’s popularity totters
When a "Make America Healthy Again" summit was held at the posh Waldorf Astoria in Washington, the line of attendees ...
As U.S. measles cases surge to 2400+ since Trump took office, RFK, Jr. official proclaims ‘not really’ a concern
Ongoing measles outbreaks in multiple parts of the country are threatening the United States’ status as a nation that has ...
Beyond pleasure: What dopamine really does in the brain
The cerebral cortex is our brain's universal machine of understanding. It builds a model of reality for us and then ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr. and the future of children’s vaccines—Less science guidance, more parental gut opinions
For decades, Americans have looked to the federal government for advice on which vaccines their children should get and when ...
Breakthrough disruptive technology ‘flops’: What can we learn?
In some cases, the vision behind a breakthrough was prescient but the technology of the day was not the best ...
Viewpoint: ‘Will Elon Musk face any consequences for Grok, his sexual harassment bot?’
For more than a week ..., anyone could go online and use a tool owned and promoted by the world’s ...
As abortion pills face new politically motivated legal threats, a new study defends the FDA’s evidence-based science
The abortion pill mifepristone is one of the most politically contentious medications in America, one increasingly targeted by anti-abortion activists ...
Yet another study rebukes RFK. Jr.’s false claim that Tylenol (acetaminophen/paracetamol) use can lead to autism
US President Donald Trump said in September there had been a "meteoric rise" in cases of autism and that Tylenol, ...
Viewpoint: Activist disinformation blurs consumers ability to separate ideology from genuine health risks
Vaccines are getting American media attention now that Republicans are engaging in misinformation the way Democrats did for decades, but ...
Microplastics are invading our brain and bodies? New research says the claims in most studies are wrong and some are a “joke”
High-profile studies reporting the presence of microplastics throughout the human body have been thrown into doubt by scientists who say ...
RFK, Jr. quietly undermining science consensus that cellphones are safe
The Food and Drug Administration quietly removed webpages saying cellphones aren’t dangerous as the Department of Health and Human Services ...
Viewpoint: Trump’s support for nuclear energy is a win for the climate
A president whose pandemic response was viewed by many as incompetent at best and brazen denial at worst spearheaded the ...
Viewpoint: Trump’s FDA has been corrupted into a bargaining chip for White House deal-making
For decades, the Food and Drug Administration was the undisputed global gold standard for regulation. While other nations might approve drugs faster or ...
