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...

On a black table, many items are displayed: cards fanned out, rollingdice, and poker chips.
By Ron Lieber, New York Times | 04.14.2017

Trying to have a baby with the aid of modern reproductive technology can feel like visiting a gambling parlor with...

Illustrated graphic representing CRISPR as a mechanical wrench for machines. It is unscrewing and screwing in DNA strands.
By Sharon Begley, STAT | 04.13.2017

The University of California has filed an appeal to overturn a February decision by a US patent tribunal that dealt UC...

Portrait of Oprah Winfrey smiling.
By Salamishah Tillet, New York Times | 04.12.2017

Rebecca Skloot’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” was a publishing and scientific sensation earlier this decade that spent 75...

Two young women of color carry shopping bags on their shoulders, and look down at their phone in their hands.
By Liz Stinson, Wired | 04.12.2017

The other day, while scrolling through Instagram, an advertisement caught my eye. This happens often enough. Instagram’s ads, uniformly square...

Demonstrators hold a banner stating "Trans Solidarity for justice, against transphobia." Other signs and protesters follow
By Liam Stack, New York Times | 04.12.2017

Changing the name or gender on a government-issued document like a driver’s license has long included a frightening step for...

A book lies open in the middle, propped up by a book stand. Out of focus, in the background are several other books and religious artifacts.
By Los Angeles Times | 04.11.2017

Scientist have begun to bring together stem cells that reorganize themselves to form ebryo-like structures. It won’t be long before...

A smeared coffee mug sits on a little platter beside an opened laptop computer with charts.
By Mary Ann Mason and Tom Ekman, Wired [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 04.11.2017

While sperm has been successfully frozen for decades, it wasn’t until 1999, when flash-freezing procedures were introduced, that eggs could...

A woman of color holds a demonstration sign reading, "George Orwell, Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood--They warned us!"
By Anne Fausto-Sterling, Gap Junction Science | 04.11.2017

The January 21, 2017 Women’s March on Washington, DC was quite the eye-opener. I am not a naïve marcher, since...