News

More Americans are turning to surrogacy to build their families, as the practice becomes more common and more publicly discussed.

Why it matters: As surrogacy becomes more visible and accessible, ethical, legal and cultural tensions become harder to ignore...

This is the first part of the 14th 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...

Without a federal law, surrogacy in the U.S. is governed by a patchwork of state regulations/

Why it matters: Confusing...

"MC0_8230" via Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC by 2.0 

This report documents a deliberate assault on disabled people in...

Facial recognition graphic
By Sammy Westfall, The Washington Post | 09.15.2021

The rapid evolution of artificial-intelligence-based technologies and their adoption by businesses and governments have outpaced efforts to hold them to...

pregnancy test
By Madeleine Carlisle, TIME | 09.14.2021

When Emma Goidel was denied coverage for her fertility treatments in September 2020, she was furious. A 31-year-old writer in...

By Carl Zimmer, The New York Times | 09.13.2021

A team of scientists and entrepreneurs announced on Monday that they have started a new company to genetically resurrect the...

DNA inside of a dollar bill
By David Jensen, Capitol Weekly | 09.13.2021

The folks in Orange Cove in California’s agriculturally rich Central Valley care about the cost of health care. It is...

Earth wearing a face mask
By Jay S. Kaufman, The New York Times | 09.10.2021

In the winter of 1848, a 26-year-old Prussian pathologist named Rudolf Virchow was sent to investigate a typhus epidemic raging...

Uyghur man
By Sui-Lee Wee, The New York Times | 09.09.2021

Two respected scientific journals have retracted two articles that relied on the DNA samples of Uyghurs in western China after...

Mammoth Biosciences logo
By Emma Betuel, TechCrunch | 09.09.2021

The CRISPR-based biotech startup Mammoth Biosciences is officially a unicorn, the company says. 

The billion-dollar valuation comes on the back...

Los Angeles police
By Sam Levin, The Guardian | 09.08.2021

The Los Angeles police department (LAPD) has directed its officers to collect the social media information of every civilian they...