News

These companies help parents try to pick their babies' traits. Experts are wary

By Rob Stein, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.06.2026

Justin Schleede reaches onto a black lab bench to pick up a tray of small plastic tubes.

"These are saliva samples as well as blood," says Schleede, a geneticist who runs Herasight Inc.'s lab in Morrisville, N.C. "We also...

Genetic Selection

The Measured Listener

By Daniel Shanahan, Los Angeles Review of Books | 05.31.2026

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...

U.S. States

The start-ups dreaming of creating genetically modified babies

By Alexandre Piquard, Le Monde [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.22.2026

"If proven to be safe, we believe preventive gene editing could be one of the most important health technologies of...

U.S. Federal

Natural Election

By Jonathan Basile, Los Ángeles Review of Books | 04.29.2026

WILLIAM BATESON, a foundational figure in the science of genetics at the turn of the last century, once recounted the...

Society

Genetic Testing Falls Flat in Large Patient Drug Trials

By Susan Young, MIT Technology Review | 11.19.2013
In recent years, DNA variants in two different genes have been linked to how much blood thinner a patient needs...
Biotech & Pharma

In Defence of Privacy

By Dr Stuart Hogarth, BioNews | 11.18.2013
Last week saw the launch of the UK arm of the Personal Genome Project (PGP). This is the second major...
Bioethics

Belgian Justice Official Demands Universal Police DNA Database

By Bruno Waterfield, Telegraph | 11.17.2013
Belgium needs a universal DNA database to fight crime with samples to be taken from every newborn baby or foreigner...
Other Countries

Developing a Fax Machine to Copy Life on Mars

By Andrew Pollack, The New York Times | 11.17.2013
MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE, Calif. — J. Craig Venter, the maverick scientist, is looking for a new world to conquer —...
Synthetic Biology

INVESTIGATORS: Side-Effects of Drug Study?

By Shelby Capacio, Fox 9 | 11.17.2013
A petition drive is under way, calling on Gov. Mark Dayton to order an investigation of the University of Minnesota...
Human Rights

How Big a Deal Are the Changes to China’s One-Child Policy?

By Joshua Keating, Slate | 11.15.2013
Give the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee credit for unpredictability. All the signals sent out before this week’s highly-anticipated third...
Bioethics

Philanthropy's Original Sin

By William A. Schambra, The New Atlantis | 11.15.2013
Philanthropy has many wonderful qualities — and never tires of proclaiming them, for one quality it sorely lacks is humility...
Human Genetic Modification

Competition Launch to 'Brand' Synthetic Biology Vanilla

By Hispanic Business, Hispanic Business | 11.14.2013

ETC Group and Friends of the Earth are launching a public design and branding competition to shine a spotlight on...

Environmentalism