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.

Bootstrap Bio...

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

The Singularity Prophets

By Benjamin Charles Germain Lee, Current Affairs | 07.23.2020

Ray Kurzweil, popularizer of the Singularity

Once the dust settles, and we look back on the decade that has just ended...

A "Post-Human" Future?
Slaves at work

Large DNA Study Traces Violent History of American Slavery

By Christine Kenneally, The New York Times | 07.23.2020

Photo by British Library on Unsplash

More than one and a half centuries after the trans-Atlantic slave trade ended, a...

The Fight for Fertility Equality

By David Kaufman, The New York Times | 07.22.2020

While plenty of New Yorkers have formed families by gestational surrogacy, they almost certainly worked with carriers living elsewhere. Because ...

Policies
Photo of a plane

Chinese infants born to Chicago-area surrogates are stranded in the U.S. without their parents, due to COVID-19

By Nara Schoenberg, Chicago Tribune | 07.22.2020

Photo by Amarnath Tade on Unsplash

Seven weeks old, with a thoughtful expression and a full head of silky black...

Assisted Reproduction
Outline of African American Woman

‘Act of genocide.’ Eugenics program tried to ‘breed out’ Black people in NC, report says

By Hayley Fowler , The News & Observer | 07.22.2020

For more than four decades North Carolina’s statewide eugenics program forcibly sterilized almost 7,600 people — many of whom were...

Society
Hacking Computer Text

A Security Breach Exposed More Than One Million DNA Profiles On A Major Genealogy Database

By Peter Aldhous, BuzzFeed News | 07.22.2020

On July 19, genealogy enthusiasts who use the website GEDmatch to upload their DNA information and find relatives to fill...

Genomics
John Muir postage stamp

Liberal, progressive — and racist? The Sierra Club faces its white-supremacist history.

By Darryl Fears and Steven Mufson, The Washington Post | 07.22.2020

No one is more important to the history of environmental conservation than John Muir — the “wilderness prophet,” “patron saint...

Media Coverage
A colored image of DNA

Once Science Fiction, Gene Editing Is Now a Looming Reality

By Katie Hafner, The New York Times | 07.22.2020

This article is part of a series exploring how the Americans With Disabilities Act has shaped modern life for people...