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...

In a dark background, a human finger touches the glowing screen from a smartphone.
By Emily Mullin, MIT Technology Review | 07.24.2017

Helix will sequence your genes for $80 and lure app developers to sell you access to different parts of it

...
An African Americna male patient looks carefully at a needle injected by a white researcher.
By William Bender, Philly News | 07.20.2017

Hundreds of black men were tricked into volunteering as human guinea pigs. For 40 years, no one stepped in to...

A laboratory scientist's right arm is shown, using a multi-channel pipette.
By Carrie Arnold, Mosaic Science | 07.18.2017

Bringing genetics into medicine leads to more accuracy, better diagnosis and personalised treatment – but not for all. Carrie Arnold meets

...
Abstract design of several double helices crossing over each other against a black background.
By The Inquiry, BBC [features Marcy Darnovsky] | 07.16.2017

"This structure has novel features, which are of considerable biological interest." It was perhaps the greatest understatement of all time...

A pile of cotton swabs.
By Kristen V. Brown, Gizmodo | 07.14.2017

The premise behind Yes or No Genomics is simple: Genetic disease is typically caused by a variation in at least...

Animated black and white photo of a man on top of a galloping horse.
By Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times | 07.13.2017

You might call it the smallest movie ever made.

This week, a team of scientists report that they have successfully...

A strand of DNA is featured. The upper right corner is highlighted.
By Matthew Cobb, New York Review of Books | 07.13.2017

In recent years, two new genetic technologies have started a scientific and medical revolution. One, relatively well known, is the...

A colorful DNA sequencing map (Shaury Nash, Creative Commons via Flikr)
By Kristen V. Brown, Gizmodo | 07.06.2017

Recently, a kerfuffle in the world of CRISPR illustrated just how easily money—and our perception of it—can impact science.

In...