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...

The U.S. Capitol building with a cloudy sky
By Stuart Leavenworth, The Sacramento Bee | 05.03.2018

-- Wall Street has plowed billions of dollars into DNA testing companies, one of the world's fastest-growing consumer services...

The Canadian flag (Red, White, and the another Red strip with a red maple leaf in the middle of the white section of flag) waving in the trees in front of a large body of water.
By Alana Cattapan and Françoise Baylis, The Star | 05.01.2018

Prime Minister Trudeau has stated it is time for Canadians to have a discussion about payment for surrogacy, eggs, and...

White pregnancy test with a light purple cap on a white background.
By Tracey Loughran, The Conversation | 05.01.2018

To all outward appearances, Louise Brown looked exactly the same as thousands of other babies when her blinking, slightly quizzical...

A shadow of a family of 5 holding hands in front of a sunset. Two parents, two toddlers, and a baby.
By The Scientist Staff, The Scientist | 05.01.2018

It’s a compelling narrative: A parent learns that his or her child has a fatal disease with no cure, and...

A women with black hair in a white tshirt and jeans is walking through a path with greenery on each side holding  lease with a small golden coated dog on the end of it.
By Phil Rogers, Lisa Capitanini, and Courtney Copenhagen, NBC Chicago | 04.30.2018

Confused by the barrage of ads from companies wanting to dissect your personal tastes/family history/longevity/health based on a simple sample...

Large, empty wooden court room. 4 columns are across the wall behind the stand.
By Jon Cohen, Science | 04.30.2018

Here’s a double-negative brain twister with potentially huge financial ramifications and a Nobel Prize resting on the answer: For an...

A pair of two green eyes
By Laurie McGinley and William Wan, The Washington Post | 04.29.2018

Doris Tyler lay on the examining table as the doctor stuck a long, thin tube into her belly. The doctor...

Icon of double helix in white against a circular background of blue
By Tina Hesman Saey, Science News [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 04.29.2018

Using DNA to find a killer sounds easy: Upload some DNA to a database, get a match and — bingo...