Slate
How far do you go to weed out lesser genetic defects
Two days ago in the New York Times, Gina Kolata told the story of Amanda Kalinsky, a 30-year-old woman who ...
“Organic Shmorganic” says Slate: Organic produce no healthier than conventional
Does feeding your child organic food really makes a difference to his health, considering that he’s been known to lick ...
Insurance coverage for genetic counseling varies from state to state
The affordable care act should improve insurance coverage for some genetic tests. But what about the counseling that helps you ...
Banana apocalypse? GM one of few options to save threatened cavendish
Scientists are experimenting with genetic modifications to protect Cavendish bananas from a variant of the banana wilt fungus. If the fungus jumps ...
Best to tell donor-conceived kids about their origins
Secrecy has long been intimately intertwined with donor conception. Once upon a time, non-disclosure was standard. Almost no one talked ...
Female promiscuity a pragmatic approach to survival
New research suggests that female primates seek out multiple sexual partners as an evolutionary strategy and opportunistically shift that strategy ...
Female promiscuity just makes sense, evolutionarily
Ever since Darwin there had been an assumption among evolutionary biologists that females were coy and choosy in their sexual ...
Genetics of the human gut microbiome might be the next big thing
Even genetically similar individuals play host to vastly different communities of gut bacteria, a study says--a reminder of how little ...
Who deserves the Nobel for sequencing the human genome?
There's a political angle to having the 10th anniversary celebration for the human genome in 2013: it implies the NIH ...
How personal genomics is like Michelangelo’s David
Personal genomics is awash in stories of genetic discoveries that turned out to be weak or wrong, yet the field ...
Study uses herpes virus to track human migration across the globe
The genomic analysis of different strains of the herpes virus reveals migration patterns of early humans ...
Project BabySeq to test how knowing your genome from birth changes your life
Brigham and Women’s Hospital's Robert Green wants to know how having your complete genome sequenced at birth changes the course ...
How do traits trickle down from grandparents to grandchildren? Partially by chance.
Personal genome sequencing allows us to take a closer look at inheritance and highlights the situations in which genetic and ...
Does finding cancer mutations lead to cures?
We don't have drugs to treat most cancer mutations. So how does hunting for mutations help? ...
Using the Human Genome Project as a model for scientific success
Obama should take a lesson from the Human Genome Project if he wants his ambitious brain-mapping project to succeed ...
The delicious, religious debate over junk DNA
What exactly do "non-coding" regions of DNA do? As scientists sequence more genomes, we get closer to the answer to ...
The human genome’s mapped. Where are all the miracle drugs?
Sequencing the human genome seemed like a discovery so important that it couldn’t be overhyped—we had, after all, transcribed the ...
Mark Lynas on Philippines travesty: True story about who destroyed Golden Rice GM rice crop
Did you hear that a group of 400 angry farmers attacked and destroyed a field trial of genetically modified rice in the ...
A hippie’s defense of GE foods
I’m a vegetarian yoga instructor, and even I can tell the case against genetically modified food is overblown. Let me ...
James Watson weighs in against Myriad in gene patent debate
Last month, co-discoverer of DNA, James Watson, took a break making controversial remarks to file an amicus brief in the ...
Open-source GM: Separating Monsanto from modification
Open-source GMOs will "help fight climate change and stick one in Monsanto’s eye." ...
Shaky science of the gene patent ruling
The following is an edited excerpt. In a unanimous ruling yesterday, the Supreme Court held that patenting a gene violates Section ...
Personal genomics and accidental paternity tests
What happens when your 23andMe results reveal that your brother is your uncle and your father isn't your father? ...
Can China really breed a crop of genetically selected geniuses?
The following is an edited excerpt. What if science offered a way to stack the odds in favor of a ...
Why collecting DNA from criminals won’t help solve crimes
The following is an excerpt. [When it comes to solving crime] bigger is better. Add arrestee profiles to the database ...
It’s time to stop obsessing about the dangers of genetic information
The personal genomics horse has bolted, yet many members of the medical community are still trying to shut the barn ...
Leading anti-GMO activist’s confession: I was completely wrong to oppose GMOs
If you fear genetically modified food, you may have Mark Lynas to thank. By his own reckoning, British environmentalist helped ...
Food movement needs to follow the money, not waste time on labels
Over the past several years I have spent a great deal of time in high-security, limited-access genetic modification laboratories. While ...