New York Times
China wants to use DNA to map faces. Is it a technology for ‘hunting people’?
Chinese scientists are trying to find a way to use a DNA sample to create an image of a person’s ...
Anti-vaccine movement, spurred by internet-based rumors and misinformation
As millions of families face back-to-school medical requirements and forms this month, the contentiousness surrounding vaccines is heating up again, ...
Scientists reconstruct yet-to-be-found skull of humans’ last common ancestor entirely through computer imaging
[R]esearchers like Dr. [Aurélien] Mounier are using computers and mathematical techniques to reconstruct the appearance of fossils they have yet ...
NY Times’ Eric Lipton defends anti-biotech, anti-vax Moms Across America, which harasses scientists
Journalists like Eric Lipton need to recognize where the real danger lies ...
Did evolution lead us down the path to heart disease?
The reason our species finds itself in the ever-constricting clutches of atherosclerosis — the insidious buildup of cholesterol-filled plaques in ...
Viewpoint: Organic farmer’s New York Times opinion piece perpetuates ‘fantasy’ of small growers feeding the world
Barber’s perspective on GM and patented seeds follow the party line of the organic industry ...
Viewpoint: Wellness industry obsession with ‘thin’ preserves ‘vicious fallacy’ and hurts women’s health
[Wellness is] a dangerous con that seduces smart women with pseudoscientific claims of increasing energy, reducing inflammation, lowering the risk ...
Consumer genetic testing and how to protect your DNA data
Consumer DNA testing kits like those from 23andMe, Ancestry.com and MyHeritage promise a road map to your genealogy and, in ...
Name recognition could be key to an early diagnosis tool for autism
Every pediatrician knows that it’s important to diagnose autism when a child is as young as possible, because when younger ...
Could we be designing babies from a menu of genetic options in 2045?
The year is 2045. The genomes of four billion humans have been sequenced, creating a huge pool of genetic information ...
Why a mysterious fungus could herald a dangerous era in drug-resistant infections
A fungus called Candida auris preys on people with weakened immune systems, and it is quietly spreading across the globe ...
We need a ‘global registry’ of all human gene-editing research, World Health Organization panel says
An influential committee of the World Health Organization said on [March 19] that it would be “irresponsible” to try to ...
Crime scene investigators couldn’t tell identical twins’ DNA apart. Until now
One night in November 1999, a 26-year-old woman was raped in a parking lot in Grand Rapids, Mich. Police officers ...
Judge dismisses plant geneticist Kevin Folta’s defamation lawsuit against New York Times
A University of Florida horticulture professor known for his scientific defense of genetically modified foods lost his defamation suit against ...
Science and religion: Why ‘needless hostility’ could be hampering scientific discovery
I am no apologist for religion. As a psychologist, I believe that the scientific method provides the best tools with ...
Ancient DNA answering previously ‘unresolvable’ questions about extinct species
The idea that [the answer to ancient questions] might be preserved in [the DNA of] old specimens has been around ...
Rethinking evolution: Animals’ attraction to beauty may have nothing to do with survival
Numerous species have conspicuous, metabolically costly and physically burdensome sexual ornaments, as biologists call them. Think of the bright elastic ...
Genetically modified humans? Here’s why they already exist
It felt as if humanity had crossed an important line: In China, a scientist named He Jiankui announced on Monday ...
What if you think you’re Black, but your DNA test disagrees?
Three years ago, when Sigrid E. Johnson was 62, she got a call from a researcher seeking volunteers for a ...
White supremacists, milk and an ‘inconvenient truth’ about genetics
Nowhere on the agenda of the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, being held in San Diego...is ...
Patenting the genes of marine life and what it means for medicine
[Marine animal] DNA is included among thousands of patents owned by BASF, which calls itself “the largest chemical producer in the ...
‘Anger into activism’: One woman’s quest to raise awareness of BRCA mutations in Jewish populations
You don’t have to be Jewish to inherit one of the BRCA gene mutations. But these mutations, which increase the risk ...
Can we eradicate malaria with promising new gene drive technique?
Malaria is among the world’s worst scourges. In 2016 the disease, which is caused by a parasite and transmitted by ...
When consumer genetic tests disagree on critical mutations
[Matt Fender] wasn’t worried last December when he clicked a button to dump all the raw data from his 23andMe ...
Viewpoint: Precision medicine promises a lot, but has delivered little
Doctors and hospitals love to talk about the patients they’ve saved with precision medicine, and reporters love to write about ...
‘Living medicine’: Reengineering bacteria to tackle genetic diseases
In a study carried out over the summer, a group of volunteers drank a white, peppermint-ish concoction laced with billions ...
Discovering a ‘third kingdom’: How this scientist upended Darwin’s ‘tree of life’
On Nov. 3, 1977, a new scientific revolution was heralded to the world — but it came cryptically, in slightly ...
