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...

Two puppies wrestle by playing tug-of-war, with a rope between.
By Jef Akst, The Scientist | 03.24.2017

Image by Darby Browning from Pixabay

The European Patent Office will grant patent rights over the use of CRISPR in

...
A gray wolf peers above the landscape.
By Luke Dormehl, Digital Trends | 03.24.2017

You’ve quite possibly heard of the Human Genome Project, the massive international science research project dedicated to sequencing the human...

A globe is shown, highlighting North and South America
By Victoria Burnett, New York Times | 03.23.2017

VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico — After years of longing and a mountain of expense, Michael Theologos became a father in December, when...

Design of a chromosome, outlined in bright green.
By Louise Aronson, New York Times | 03.23.2017

You can’t tell by looking at me, but I’m a genetic mutant. My mother is, too, as were my aunt...

Two authorities in yellow jackets look directly at the camera, with an eye of suspicion. One of them holds out a DNA swabbing spit kit.
By Allison Lewis, Newsday | 03.23.2017

If you think the government wouldn’t target you as a suspect because of who is in your family, you might...

Bird's eye view of six petri dishes.
By Carl Zimmer, New York Times | 03.21.2017

As biological research races forward, ethical quandaries are piling up. In a report published Tuesday in the journal eLife, researchers...

Close-up of image of an eye, with eyelashes surrounding the eye lid.
By Peter Aldhous, Buzzfeed News | 03.21.2017

The story began, like so many in biotechnology, with an upbeat press release: Up to 100 patients with a...

Photo of a lab bench, with several equipment on the desk.
By Rob Stein, NPR | 03.21.2017

How far should scientists be allowed to go in creating things that resemble primitive human brains, hearts, and even human...