News

'Superbabies' Startup Seeks Funds for Controversial Gene Editing Push

By Sophie Alexander and Ike Swetlitz, Bloomberg | 06.25.2025

A California-startup focused on genetically editing human embryos — a step toward creating so-called designer babies — is raising money as many of Silicon Valley’s ultra-rich turn their attention to one of the most controversial technologies in medicine.

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Patents & Other IP

Can doctors test embryos for autism? And should they?

By Brittany Luse, Liam McBain, and Neena Pathak, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.28.2025

A newly available kind of genetic testing, called polygenic embryo screening, promises to screen for conditions that can include cancer, obesity, autism, bipolar disorder, even celiac disease. These conditions are informed by many genetic variants and environmental factors - so...

Genetic Selection

Why Deleting Your 23andMe Data Is a Political Imperative

By Katie Sagaser, The DNA Exchange | 05.27.2025

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this piece are solely my own and do not represent those of my...

U.S. Federal

Trumpian “Common Sense” and the History of IQ Tests

By Pepper Stetler, Los Angeles Review of Books | 05.08.2025

^{"Donald Trump Signs The Pledge" by Michael Vadon

is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.}

This is...

Society

Some past Science News coverage was racist and sexist. We’re deeply sorry

By Science News Staff, Science News | 03.24.2022

^{Image from Wikicommons}

In late 2019, with the 100th birthday of Science News a few years off, our team considered...

Bioethics

tweezers are used to take a DNA strand apart

Should we use genome editing to make better babies? Here’s what the experts think

By Tim Brinkhof, Big Think [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 03.23.2022

George Church is one of the world’s most famous pioneers of genetics and biotechnology. He has made colossal contributions to...

Society

Are We About to Cure Sickle-Cell Disease?

By Dhruv Khullar, The New Yorker | 03.22.2022

In September, 1904, a twenty-year-old Grenadian man named Walter Clement Noel disembarked in New York after an eight-day voyage from...

Assisted Reproduction

In a first, brain implant lets man with complete paralysis spell out thoughts: ‘I love my cool son.’

By Kelly Servick, Science | 03.22.2022

In its final stages, the neurological disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) can bring extreme isolation. People lose control of their...

Synthetic Biology

Person in black uniform typing on a laptop

This Database Stores the DNA of 31,000 New Yorkers. Is It Illegal?

By Troy Closson, The New York Times | 03.22.2022

Three years ago, Shakira Leslie was returning home from a cousin’s birthday party in the Bronx when officers pulled over...

Policies

Silicon Valley’s Favorite Weird Philosophy Is Fundamentally Wrong

By Susan B. Levin, Slate | 03.22.2022

If, through biotechnology, we could drastically enhance ourselves—such that our ability to absorb and manipulate information was unlimited, we experienced...

Human Genetic Modification