News

This is Ask An Expert, where every weekday at 9:20am, KCBS Radio is giving you direct access to top experts in various fields. Today: Gene-editing technology allows scientists to work with DNA in unprecedented ways, but there are larger scientific...

For months, a small company in San Francisco has been pursuing a secretive project: the birth of a genetically engineered baby.

Backed by OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and his husband, along with Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong, the startup—called...

Pronatalism is an old idea with roots in eugenics and nationalism, that is now fashionable among far-right influencers and policymakers. They talk...

This is the 10th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring...

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...

Bird's eye view of an elder face.
By Carolyn Gregoire, Huffington Post | 03.20.2017

It’s not just genetics that influences whether your nose turns out short and wide or tall and narrow.

Whether your...

Silhouette of three figures walking with bare feet across the ground. In the distance is the sun rise.
By Ewen Callaway, Nature | 03.20.2017

The San people of southern Africa are among the most-studied indigenous groups in the world. Legions of researchers have investigated...

A young baby with a soother in their mouth, stares at the camera as they grasp the window that displays their reflection
By Ryan Menezes, Cracked | 03.20.2017

If you've made the joke recently about how Idiocracy is coming true, ask yourself this: How would you fix it...

Separate black and white portraits juxtaposing Lewis Terman and David Starr Jordan.
By Jacqueline Lee, Mercury News | 03.17.2017

District’s schools will include a unit about California and Palo Alto’s role in the eugenics movement

Two Palo Alto middle...

Two babies lay side by side on two separate pillows, appearing to sleep.
By Gabe Cohen, KOMO News | 03.17.2017

A Seattle fertility doctor says more patients are asking for twins because of Beyoncé and George Clooney, though doctors are...

Artistic structure that displays the letters representing DNA-bases ATCG, in a glass wall.
By Martina Cornel, New Scientist | 03.17.2017

A proposed law effectively allowing US employers to require workers to take DNA tests and hand over the results is

...
A bare torso of a pregnant woman is centrally touched by four different hands.
By Maria Cheng, Associated Press | 03.16.2017

Britain's Newcastle University says its scientists have received a license to create babies using DNA from three people to prevent...