News

The Mysterious Eugenics of Aesthetic Taste

By Michael Rossi, The Los Angeles Review of Books | 01.11.2026

This is the 10th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring the history of eugenics and the ways it shapes our present. The series is organized by Osagie K. Obasogie in...

Arts & Culture

The mirage of AI deregulation

By Alondra Nelson, Science | 01.15.2026

One of the most interventionist approaches to technology governance in the United States in a generation has cloaked itself in the language of deregulation. In early December 2025, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to announce a forthcoming “One...

Global Governance

More and “Better” Babies: The Dark Side of the Pronatalist Movement

By Daphne O. Martschenko and Julia E. H. Brown, Hastings Bioethics Forum | 01.14.2026

There is growing concern that falling fertility rates will lead to economic and demographic catastrophe. The social and political movement...

Genetic Selection

Bay Area Startups Want to Make Genetically Engineered Babies. What Could Go Wrong?

By Grace Won, KQED Forum [with CGS' Katie Hasson] | 12.02.2025

In the U.S., it’s illegal to edit genes in human embryos with the intention of creating a genetically engineered baby...

Genetic Selection

The USDA’s new labeling for genetically modified foods goes into effect Jan. 1. Here’s what you need to know.

By Laura Reiley, The Washington Post | 01.01.2022

The goal was to get rid of the patchwork of different labels for foods and ingredients that have been scientifically...

Policies

First sickle cell patient treated with CRISPR gene-editing still thriving

By Rob Stein, NPR | 12.31.2021

^{"Sickle cell disease (SCD)" by National Institutes

of Health (NIH)}^{is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0}

For more than a...

Human Genetic Modification

Sickle Cell Math Is Brutally Simple, but Not Widely Taught

By Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 12.28.2021

^{OpenStax College, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons}

No doctor ever counseled Lametra Scott and her husband, Rickey Buggs...

Genetic Selection

Your DNA Test Could Send a Relative to Jail

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, The New York Times Magazine | 12.27.2021

On any given day, CeCe Moore’s inbox is flooded with strangers asking her to solve the mysteries of life and...

Bioethics

How Biotech Crops Can Crash—and Still Never Fail

By Aniket Aga, Maywa Montenegro de Wit, Scientific American | 12.27.2021

The United Nations Food Systems Summit held last September was eclipsed by a powerful countermobilization effort led by farmers and...

Biotech & Pharma

A Popular Test Claims to Boost I.V.F. Success. The Science Is Unclear.

By Amy Klein, The New York Times | 12.18.2021

For patients undergoing in vitro fertilization, there is a common test to help determine the best time to transfer the...

Assisted Reproduction

Stem cell agency: Following the money — and its performance

By David Jensen, Capitol Weekly | 12.17.2021

One year ago this month, a $5.5 billion wave washed over California’s ambitious stem cell agency and left it refreshed...

Policies

Rushing Quebec’s Bill 2 risks leaving many voices unheard

By Alana Cattapan, Vanessa Gruben, Stefanie Carsley and Angela Cameron, CTV News | 12.14.2021

^{Photo by Cecilie Johnsen on Unsplash}

Last month, the Quebec government introduced Bill 2, which aims to comprehensively amend Quebec’s...

Policies