Singularity Hub
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.
Forecasting: 2020 could bring major advances in gene therapies and pig-to-human organ transplants
Here are two stories in biotech we’re keeping our eyes on. Although successes likely won’t come to fruition this year ...
Neuroscience had a ‘transformative’ decade, giving us brain-computer interfaces, new research tools
I rarely use the words transformative or breakthrough for neuroscience findings. The brain is complex, noisy, chaotic, and often unpredictable ...
Why it’s so difficult for human embryos to survive CRISPR gene editing
CRISPR may one day wipe out devastating genetic diseases throughout entire family lines, or even the human race. But to ...
Does AI represent our best bet for extending human lives?
Co-founder and CEO [of Insilico Medicine] Alex Zhavoronkov said he believes there is no greater goal in healthcare today—or, really, ...
Computer simulation suggests we aren’t even close to designing better babies
It’s difficult to talk about genetic selection without the umbrella of morality or ethics. Yet like all scientific advancements, it ...
Virtual reality gets more realistic: Vibrating synthetic skin simulates touch
While they’re still struggling to gain commercial traction, the latest VR headsets are able to transport people to impressive virtual ...
Can you hack your sleep cycle for a better night’s rest?
Sleep has become the latest frontier in the life-hackers’ battle for self-improvement. But how easy is to to rewire how you ...
Artificial lungs grown in ‘hijacked’ mouse embryo could pave way for human transplants
Vaping aside, as dangerous air quality becomes increasingly prevalent in cities around the globe, the risk of serious lung disease ...
Trio of gene therapies seeks to reverse age-related diseases to make us ‘healthy, youthful later in life’
The legendary synthetic biologist Dr. George Church and team at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University took a first step towards ...
AI ethics can’t come from human medicine: Principles that guide doctors would ‘make no sense’ to a machine
The four core principles of medical ethics are respect for autonomy (patients should have control over how they are treated), ...
How synthetic biology will allow us to redesign humans ‘from the ground up’
Just as physics and chemistry have given humans power over the world of the inanimate, biology is giving us the ...
If we find alien life, how will we protect it from our own ‘microbial stowaways’?
When we venture beyond the moon, we’ll be bringing trillions of microbial stowaways with us. Which complicates things. If we ...
‘Scientific fight of the century’: Two theories of consciousness are going head-to-head
Here’s something you don’t hear every day: two theories of consciousness are about to face off in the scientific fight ...
4 innovations—including stronger gene-editing skills—that would allow us to rewrite genomes from the ground up
The ability to read genomes has transformed our understanding of biology. Being able to write them would give us unprecedented ...
Astonishing efficiency, unlimited storage: What makes the human brain so powerful?
[A] team from Washington University in St. Louis combined neural recordings from rats with computer modeling to uncover one of the ...
Artificial intelligence can determine your ‘brain age’ by analyzing MRI scans
Delaying “brain age” may sound like the latest quick-fix gimmick on a late-night infomercial, but the science underlying the concept ...
Are undiscovered antibiotics ‘silently waiting’ in our own bodies? Researchers scour microbiome for helpful genes
[A] study led by Dr. Mohamed Donia from Princeton University pushed the dark microbiome world into the light by targeting the ...
AI has a problem with generalization. Human brains may offer a solution.
Unconstrained by evolution, AI has the potential to churn through vast amounts of data to surpass our puny, fatty central ...
Viewpoint: There’s reason for optimism about AI’s ability to diagnose illnesses—but there’s also a lot of hype
Medicine is one of the hottest fields when it comes to applying AI to real-world problems, in particular using deep learning systems to ...
Merging man and machine: Tiny DNA nanomachines control biology, fight cancer
Chemistry isn’t king when it comes to governing our bodies; physical forces are similarly powerful. The problem is how to ...
Robots gain ‘sense of tactile touch’ through light-based nervous system
This month, a team led by Dr. Rob Shepard at Cornell University [gave robots an artificial nervous system], with a seriously ...
Viewpoint: Before we ‘summon the demon’ of AI, we need a global consensus on ethics
The potential threats of AI are many, and most people agree that ethical AI that benefits humanity as a whole ...
Uncovering cancer’s history: CRISPR turns cells into ‘molecular recorders’ to track cell changes
Cancer’s impenetrable secrets partly rely on its mysterious molecular history. As cells turn to the dark side, a whirlwind of ...
AI has the power to advance healthcare. Here’s why it hasn’t yet ‘moved the needle’
The promise of AI to solve our health and wellness woes almost seems inevitable. From DeepMind’s algorithms that match or ...
‘Sputnik 2.0’: China wants to lead the world in CRISPR research
China is seeing an explosion in CRISPR-based animal studies and embracing the gene-editing technology with unrivaled zest and zeal—so much ...
Powerful CAR-T duo uses artificial ‘claws’ to grab and destroy HIV
Lengtigen, a biotech company based in Gaithersburg, MD, teamed up with researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in ...
Are you ‘icked out’ by human-monkey chimeras? Here’s why scientists have taken this controversial step
[July 31], news broke that a prominent stem cell researcher is making human-monkey chimeras in a secretive lab in China ...
3 ways neuroscience and AI can work together to help us understand how we think
The meteoric success of deep learning showcases how insights from neuroscience—memory, learning, decision-making, vision—can be distilled into algorithms that bestow ...
