Science Literacy Project Daily Digest
Debunking the “humans are getting dumber” study
A new study published in Trends in Geneticsis suggesting that humans are slowly but surely losing their intellectual and emotional ...
Alzheimer’s tied to mutation harming immune response
In a surprising coincidence, two groups of researchers working from entirely different starting points have converged on a mutated gene ...
Brain gene separates humans from apes
An international team of researchers have discovered a new gene that helps explain how humans evolved from apes. Scientists say ...
UCSF Genetics Symposium: personalized medicine is the theme
Personalized medicine advances arising from genetic discoveries were the primary focus of wide-ranging presentations at the UCSF Institute for Human Genetics 2012 ...
Book: How synthetic biology will reinvent nature and ourselves
In the future, genetically modified organisms could be making our medicines, our fuel, our housewares, our houses — and they ...
Biosecurity concerns for new animal disease research lab
For over 50 years the United States has carried out research on dangerous animal diseases at Plum Island, just off ...
GM seeds spur protest in Costa Rica
Close to one hundred people gathered in front of the Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganaderia (MAG) in San Jose on ...
GM labeling fight goes to Washington State
The next stop for the GMO labeling movement is Washington State, where I-522 (also known as "The People’s Right To ...
Scientists breed disease-resistant fish, sans genetic engineering
The Japanese are great guzzlers of fish, but fish are in finite supply. And farming them to increase that supply ...
Coconut crisis forces a rethink on gene banks as conservation tools
The international collection of the South Pacific's coconut palm species, held at a field gene bank in Papua New Guinea, ...
Wild coffee faces extinction, leaves cultivated crops genetically vulnerable
Wild species of Arabica could be extinct in the wild by 2080 thanks to climate change, a new study says ...
What is a posthuman being?
What is a posthuman being? For years, I have been hearing that we are gradually moving towards a new state ...
DNA sequencing used to stop “superbug” outbreak in hospital
An outbreak of the hospital superbug MRSA has been brought to an end by UK doctors cracking the bacterium's genetic ...
Europeans and Asians traded DNA 2,000 years ago
Genetic blending between Europeans and Asians occurred over 2,000 years ago in the Altai region of Mongolia, according to a ...
Men’s Y chromosome isn’t “junk” — it’s an “evolutionary marvel”
The Y chromosome may have gotten a bad rap. Despite the claim that this male sex chromosome is mostly junk, ...
It’s showtime for stem cells in San Diego
San Diego research centers banded together to bring in stem cell grants, getting more than $261 million. Local leaders calculated ...
Human enhancement: Resistance is futile?
In the next few decades we may well see see technology currently used to aid the sick and disabled -- ...
What’s in store for food reform in Obama’s second term?
When Obama was first elected, food reformers dreamt big. As Michael Pollan wrote just after the 2008 election in his ...
The new eugenics movement
The Chronicle of Higher Education has a piece out by Nathaniel Comfort, The Eugenic Impulse. I would just like to ...
Organic farming may be less energy intensive
The Rodale Institute , which promotes organic farming, has been investigating this question for more than 30 years. It grows ...
“Oprah’s Farm” to capitalize on organic food craze?
On Monday, the New York Post unearthed a handful of applications to the US Patent and Trademark Organization for Oprah-branded ...
Stem cell wins and losses in the 2012 elections
2012 was a banner year for the cause of cure. First among our stem cell electoral victories was the re-election ...
Storing cancer data in the ‘cloud’
Storing music and photos on distant computers via "cloud" technology is nothing new. But Johns Hopkins researchers are now using ...
Geneticist suggests human species is on an intellectual decline
Professor Gerald Crabtree, who heads a genetics laboratory at Stanford University in California, has put forward the iconoclastic idea that ...
Mutations that accelerate neural development linked to autism spectrum disorder
Neurodevelopmental disorders such as intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorders are marked by mutations that impair signaling between neurons. These ...
Australia grapples with GM wheat
Last month, a group of Australian scientists published a warning to the citizens of the country and of the world ...
Food movement loses battles but will win war
While support for GE food labels has never been stronger, the incessant drumbeat of misleading and outright false industry advertising ...
