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...

Microscopic sickle cells
By Heidi Ledford, Nature News | 10.12.2016

A mutation in a single DNA letter causes a painful and debilitating disease known as sickle-cell anaemia. Researchers have wrestled...

Vitruvian drawing sketch.
By Jason Dorrier, Singularity Hub | 10.10.2016

A “top secret" meeting of scientists was held at the Langone Medical Center on Halloween 2015. Their aim? To kickstart...

Microscopic image of an egg injected with sperm via in vitro fertilization method.
By Jane E. Brody, The New York Times | 10.10.2016

This summer Louise Brown, the world’s first “test tube” baby, celebrated her 38th birthday as a mother of two naturally...

Black and white image of a human face, covered with aluminum foil. Light reflects off the foil.
By Elspeth Reeve, VICE News | 10.09.2016

Andrew remembers feeling a “tinge of apprehension” when he logged on to 23andMe. Several weeks earlier, he’d spit into a...

A surgeon's hands hold sterilized tools under a light.
By Richard Craver, Winston-Salem Journal | 10.07.2016

President Barack Obama signed into law Friday a Senate bill that protects sterilization victims receiving compensation payments from cutbacks in...

A surgeon holding instruments is surrounded by a team. A light beams on patient undergoing surgery.
By Rachael Rettner, Live Science | 10.05.2016

Out of four uterus transplants that were recently performed at a U.S. hospital, three were not successful, doctors announced today. What...

Three sperm cells
By Hannah Devlin, The Guardian | 10.05.2016

Boys conceived using an assisted reproductive technique in which sperm is injected directly into the egg have lower fertility than...

In a darkened room, several candles are lit on top of a birthday cake.
By Carl Zimmer, The New York Times | 10.05.2016

On Aug. 4, 1997, Jeanne Calment passed away in a nursing home in France. The Reaper comes for us all...