Popular Science
Articles written for the GLP list the source as Genetic Literacy Project. All other articles were written for the sources noted with excerpts provided by the GLP.
How should trans athletes qualify for women’s sports?
In 2004, the nationally ranked long-distance runner [Joanna Harper] started hormone therapy (HT) as part of her transition to female ...
Prehistoric footprints offer snapshot of how our ancestors divided labor between men and women
Prehistoric footprints are a remarkable and precious source of evidence for the behavior and biology of ancient organisms, capturing a ...
Do you miss or spot Hollywood movie ‘continuity errors’? Here’s how ‘change blindness’ works
Gaze at the top image of Ben Franklin’s famous kite study. Now, the one below it. See the changes? You ...
Something’s fishy: We got arms, legs and other skeletal features from our aquatic ancestors
In his 20 years as an ichthyologist, [John Sparks has] seen a lot of fish—intact and not. He’s traveled to ...
Mongolians, and their gut bacteria, may be the key to solving lactose intolerance
[Archaeogeneticist Christina] Warinner was there to solve a mystery: Despite the dairy diversity she saw, an estimated 95 percent of ...
Why do humans have tailbones?
Though it’s currently useless, the human coccyx—commonly referred to as the tailbone—remains nestled at the bottom of the spine, a ...
Strep throat making a comeback? Bacteria developing resistance to our ‘go-to’ antibiotics
Strep is generally considered a known entity—with a known, reliable treatment. Then came two serious Strep A infections in Seattle, ...
Wait, corn is a fruit? Yes—here’s the biology that explains why
We all know the is-a-tomato-a-fruit debate (correct answer: yes, but you still shouldn’t put it in a fruit salad). Now ...
‘The Intelligence Trap’: Book examines why smart people make irrational decisions
While decades of psychological research have documented humanity’s more irrational tendencies, it is only relatively recently that scientists have started ...
Sickle cell disease targeted with CRISPR therapy as ‘the only potential cure’
[F]or the first time, doctors in the United States used the gene editing tool CRISPR to attempt to remedy a ...
Can 23andMe’s consumer genetics test predict diabetes risk?
Adding to its roster of healthcare offerings, the direct-to-consumer genetic testing company 23andMe announced [March 11] that it can provide ...
Gene editing police? World Health Organization may take on the job
Who’s going to police CRISPR? That was the cry of many scientists after news broke at the end of last ...
Unhealthy sperm often overlooked as cause of lost pregnancies
Doctors often recommend women who experience recurrent pregnancy loss, usually defined as three or more losses, undergo testing to try ...
Epigenetic clues could assist crime investigations by revealing age range, lifestyle habits of suspects
[The] field of forensic epigenetics [uses] the markers that sit on top of DNA and modify it’s expression, rather than the ...
Can a blood test find your body’s internal clock
Your body has a clock—and thanks to the travails of modern life, that clock may not line up with the timing ...
Synthetic marijuana has a real problem: Nobody knows what’s in it
[Recently], more than 70 people overdosed on the synthetic marijuana known as K2 during a single 24 hour period in New Haven, ...
Viewpoint: Here’s why it’s ‘moronic’ to suggest that Homo erectus was lazy
[Y]ou’ve probably seen a headline or two (or twelve) touting a new discovery about our long extinct human relative, Homo erectus ...
When is it ok to edit the genome of a human embryo? Americans have mixed opinions
We’ve reached the point in scientific and technological advancement that editing our own genomes, or those of humans not yet ...
Editing the brain? CRISPR and gold nanoparticles could make it possible
Add this to the list of possible applications for the seemingly-magical gene editing technology CRISPR: helping people with neurological disorders edit ...
