MIT Technology Review
Improving artificial intelligence by teaching our machines to reason
Deep learning, the category of AI algorithms that kick-started the field’s most recent revolution, has made immense strides in giving ...
What we know about Elon Musk’s ‘dramatic’ plan to link human brains to computers through implants
[July 16], fans and haters of Elon Musk turned out by the thousands to watch an internet live-stream of the ...
Will China tell the world about its third controversial CRISPR baby?
The Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing, held in Hong Kong last November, was meant to debate the pros ...
Monkeys given gene-edited pig organs in quest to address human transplant shortage
In 2017, Harvard University geneticist George Church predicted that gene-edited pig organs would be transplanted into people within two years—maybe ...
CRISPR babies with ‘protective’ HIV mutation could have shorter life span
When the Chinese scientist He Jiankui created the first gene-edited children, he dreamed of improving the world. He believed the ...
Why biotech firms are jumping into the cannabis business
As biotechnology embraces the legal cannabis industry, not a few of its executives are grappling with a dilemma: what will ...
Searching for a CRISPR antidote in case gene editing is used as a weapon
[W]hat’s to stop a madman, terrorist, or state from employing CRISPR to cause harm?... In her book A Crack in Creation, ...
Testing human intelligence by putting our brain genes in monkeys
Human intelligence is one of evolution’s most consequential inventions. It is the result of a sprint that started millions of ...
Gene-editing rock stars: Geneticists set record with 13,200 CRISPR edits of single cell, opening door to ‘radical redesign’ of species
Since its invention, CRISPR has let scientists introduce DNA changes at specific locations in a genome. Often these precise changes ...
Gene therapy could offer ‘one-time genetic tune-up’ for Alzheimer’s patients
No one knows for certain what causes Alzheimer’s disease. But one fact about the condition has gained nearly irrefutable status ...
Searching for ‘hidden talents’: Chinese parents turn to genetic tests for their toddlers
Fears of seeing their children fall behind their peers have left Chinese parents searching for anything to give them a ...
Can we slow aging by killing off toxic cells? This small human study passed its first test
A red-hot anti-aging strategy quietly passed its first test earlier this year after 14 volunteers took drugs meant to kill off ...
Did China’s CRISPR babies have their brains enhanced? It’s possible.
The brains of two genetically edited girls born in China last year may have been changed in ways that enhance ...
We are in the midst of a consumer DNA ‘testing frenzy’
By the start of 2019, more than 26 million consumers had added their DNA to four leading commercial ancestry and ...
Are DIY designer babies a real possibility?
[Bryan] Bishop, a 29-year-old programmer and Bitcoin investor, has been leaving a trail of comments about human “enhancement” on the ...
Stanford investigating whether faculty has ties to controversial Chinese CRISPR baby experiment
Officials at Stanford University have opened an investigation into what several high-profile faculty members knew about a Chinese effort to ...
Why we don’t have to worry about ‘designer babies’: Altering intelligence is too hard
One of the main worries that the public has about CRISPR is that it could be used to create “designer babies” with increased levels ...
Preventing opioid overdoses with a smart phone app that monitors breathing patterns
The opioid epidemic in the US kills 115 Americans every day, with fentanyl by far the biggest killer. Per year, drugs in ...
Why 2018 was such a big year for DNA data
These were some of the surprising new uses of DNA information that emerged over the last 12 months as genetic ...
Improving human sperm with gene editing? Harvard researcher moves forward as scientists debate CRISPR babies
In the wild uproar around an experiment in China that created twin girls whose genes were altered to protect them ...
Chinese researcher’s claims of gene-edited babies prompts investigation
A Chinese researcher who claims to have created the first gene-edited babies, He Jiankui of the Southern University of Science and ...
One scientist’s quest for an anti-aging drug
Judith Campisi has been a leading figure in the biology of aging since the early 1990s, when her research on ...
Inside a couple’s quest to pay for an experimental gene therapy to save their children
“We need your help, we really do,” Gary [Landsman] says, his voice breaking. The Landsmans’ two sons—Benny, then 18 months, ...
Designer babies are already here—and why we should be worried
Matthew assumed the weakness in his knee was the sort of orthopedic nuisance that happens when you turn 30. … ...
Geneticist Carlos Bustamante’s effort to make DNA databases less white
In the 15 years since the Human Genome Project first exposed our DNA blueprint, vast amounts of genetic data have ...
Optical illusions and why neural networks can’t seem to figure them out
[Optical illusions] are interesting because they provide insight into the nature of the visual system and perception. So ways of ...
Why it’s critical for AI to be given a good dose of common sense
Wherever artificial intelligence is deployed, you will find it has failed in some amusing way. Take the strange errors made by translation algorithms ...