News

During his 2015 State of the Union address, then-President Barack Obama announced what he promised would be an ambitious public health project. “Tonight, I’m launching a new Precision Medicine Initiative to bring us closer to curing diseases like cancer and diabetes...

This is the 15th 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. You can read the first part here. The series...

Justin Schleede reaches onto a black lab bench to pick up a tray of small plastic tubes.

"These are saliva...

"If proven to be safe, we believe preventive gene editing could be one of the most important health technologies of...

Large golden retriever dog lying on grass
By Jessica Hekman, Undark | 09.13.2018

The promise of a sequenced genome is like a wrapped present, containing exactly what you always wanted but never knew...

Two upright pill bottles, one pill lying down, and several loose pills, all on top of a black table
By Jennifer Tsai, Scientific American | 09.12.2018

They tell us race is an invention.

That there is more genetic variation between two black people than there is...

Three stages of human evolution, looking more like a modern man from left to right. Pencil drawings on a tan background
By Michael Schulson, Undark | 09.12.2018

LAST SPRING, Paul Strode gave an unusual survey to his advanced biology students at Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado...

Technician working with test tubes
By Larry Mantle, KPCC AirTalk [features Marcy Darnovsky] | 09.12.2018

In 2004, Voters approved Proposition 71 by nearly 60 percent establishing a $3 billion bond to fund the science of...

A man and a woman holding the hands of a baby, laying on a white background.
By Ariana Eunjung Cha, The Washington Post | 09.12.2018

BOSTON — Kianni Arroyo clasps 8-year-old Sophia’s hands tightly as they spin around, giggling like mad. It’s late afternoon, and there...

Gloved hands moving small test tubes from one test tube rack to another
By Chronicle Editorial Board, San Francisco Chronicle | 09.11.2018

California’s pioneering decision to spend $3 billion on stem cell research isn’t producing cures after 14 years of work. Instead...

Brown judge's gavel lying on a white background.
By Megan Molteni, Wired | 09.11.2018

AFTER THREE BITTER years and tens of millions of dollars in legal fees, the epic battle over who owns one of...

DNA inside a syringe on a blue background.
By Liz Szabo, The New York Times | 09.11.2018

Facing incurable breast cancer at age 55, MaryAnne DiCanto put her faith in “precision medicine” — in which doctors try...