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...

Human genome graphic
By Megan Molteni , Wired | 12.30.2020

IN 1987, WHEN researchers first used the word genomics to describe the newly developing discipline of mapping DNA, Eric Green had...

IVF clinic equipment
By Helen Pidd, The Guardian | 12.29.2020

England’s first not-for-profit IVF clinic is to open in London next year, run by a charity better known for providing...

Home DNA kit
By Darrell Etherington, TechCrunch | 12.29.2020

DNA testing technology company 23andMe  has raised just shy of $82.5 million in new funding, from an offering of...

A crowd under surveillance
By Davide Castelvecchi, Nature | 12.23.2020

After a year of heavy scrutiny and seemingly endless controversy around artificial-intelligence (AI) technologies, the field’s most prestigious conference has...

Cancer cells
By Jocelyn Kaiser, Science | 12.22.2020

It’s troubling news that gene therapy researchers have long anticipated: A hemophilia patient injected with a virus carrying a therapeutic...

crispr dna
By Rob Stein, NPR | 12.15.2020

The last thing a lot of people want to do these days is get on a plane. But even a...

Voter ballot
By Patrick Foong, BioNews | 12.14.2020

The recent close-call US presidential election grabbed headlines, but no less closely-fought was California's Proposition 14, also on the ballot in...

By Emily Mullin, Future Human | 12.13.2020

Amid a raging global pandemic, the field of gene editing made major strides in 2020. For years, scientists have been...