News

A US startup company is offering to help wealthy couples screen their embryos for IQ using controversial technology that raises questions about the ethics of genetic enhancement.

The company, Heliospect Genomics, has worked with more than a dozen couples undergoing...

A little-noticed change to South Africa’s national health research guidelines, published in May of this year, has put the country on an ethical precipice. The newly added language appears to position the country as the first to explicitly permit...

IN THE FALL OF 2016, I gave a talk at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton titled “Are Robots...

Discovering your genetic history can be as simple as spitting into a test tube, but what happens when your data...

IV bag and line at a hospital
By Meeri Kim, The Washington Post | 02.05.2022

Paddy Doherty remembers his father as a proud, hard-working family man who stayed physically fit for most of his life...

E. O. Wilson
By Mark Borrello and David Sepkoski, The New York Review | 02.05.2022

"E.O. Wilson 5" by afagen is
licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The death of renowned biologist Edward O. Wilson in...

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office logo
By Jon Cohen, Science | 02.04.2022

Another showdown in the seemingly endless patent battle over who invented CRISPR, the genome editor that has revolutionized biology, took...

Closeup of an eye being analyzed by biometric technology
By Michelle Spektor, The Washington Post | 02.03.2022

Places around the world are using biometric technologies for coronavirus contact tracing and surveillance. For example, a municipality in South...

Pregnant woman holding an ultrasound next to belly
By Amy Julia Becker, The New York Times | 02.01.2022

Our 16-year-old daughter, Penny, wakes up to the beeping of her alarm. On her way downstairs, she picks up her...

a bunch of sperm surrounding an egg
By Libby Denkmann and Sarah Leibovitz , NPR | 01.31.2022

Consumer DNA testing kits like 23andMe or Ancestry have opened up a new world of information for children conceived using...

Couple standing on a world map
By Amy Molloy, Independent.ie | 01.27.2022

Irish couples expecting babies via surrogacy in Ukraine are expected to receive special diplomatic assistance amid concerns over the security...

Baby crawling within a DNA fence
By Ian Sample, The Guardian | 01.26.2022

Before your child is born, you have their genome tweaked to boost their stature, build and intelligence. When they head...