News

A Chinese scientist horrified the world in 2018 when he revealed he had secretly engineered the birth of the world's first gene-edited babies.

His work was reviled as reckless and unethical because, among other reasons, gene-editing was so new...

INTRODUCTION

Baby bonuses. Motherhood medals. Fertility tracking. You may have heard of these policy proposals as solutions from the Trump administration to help encourage women to have more children.

Besides falling short of ensuring that people have what they need...

Adapted from Mitochondrial DNA at
National Human Genome Research Institute

Recently, media outlets around the world have been reporting on...

A newly available kind of genetic testing, called polygenic embryo screening, promises to screen for conditions that can include cancer...

Pink heart muscle cells sample
By Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 10.29.2018

For Dr. Piero Anversa, the fall from scientific grace has been long, and the landing hard.

Researchers worldwide once hailed...

Blue, pink and white transgender flag flying
By Christoph Hanssmann, TruthOut | 10.27.2018

The Trump administration’s proposed scheme to redefine sex as “a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth” is not...

US patent seal
By Shobita Parthasarathy, Nature | 10.23.2018

Next month, researchers, policymakers, ethicists and social scientists will meet in Hong Kong for the second International Summit on Human...

Eugenics tree
By Nathaniel Comfort, MIT Technology Review | 10.23.2018

Want to predict aggression? Neuroticism? Risk aversion? Authoritarianism? Academic achievement? This is the latest promise from the burgeoning field of...

Red stained DNA markers
By Krystal Tsosie and Matthew Anderson, The Conversation | 10.22.2018

Dr. Carlos Bustamante, a prominent population geneticist, recently concluded that Senator Elizabeth Warren had “a Native American ancestor.” While geneticists...

By Laura Hercher, MIT Technology Review | 10.22.2018

At first, Matthew assumed the weakness in his knee was the sort of orthopedic nuisance that happens when you turn...

Purple test tubes in rack
By Antonio Regalado, MIT Technology Review | 10.18.2018

The DNA testing company Color Genomics says that early next year it will offer customers a new type of gene...

Gloved hand on DNA sample
By Max Read, Intelligencer | 10.17.2018

Do we know anything new about Elizabeth Warren, now that we’ve seen her DNA test results? Besides, I mean...