News

US startup charging couples to ‘screen embryos for IQ’

By Hannah Devlin, Tom Burgis, David Pegg, and Jason Wilson, The Guardian [cites CGS’ Katie Hasson] | 10.18.2024

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...

Genetic Selection

South Africa amended its research guidelines to allow for heritable human genome editing

By Françoise Baylis and Katie Hasson, The Conversation | 10.24.2024

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...

Policies

The New Artificial Intelligentsia

By Ruha Benjamin, Los Angeles Review of Books | 10.18.2024

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

A "Post-Human" Future?

What Do You Risk With At-Home DNA Test Kits?

By Ashleigh Wyss [cites CGS' Katie Hasson], Listnr | 10.09.2024

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

Society

Biology Starts to Get a Technological Makeover

By Steve Lohr, The New York Times | 09.16.2021

^{Photo by igemhq on Flickr}

BOSTON — Two white-coated lab technicians, seated at work stations in a corner, are vastly...

Synthetic Biology

An anti-racist action plan for studying the human genome

By Eric D. Green, The Hill | 09.16.2021

^{Image Credit: Ernesto Del Aguila III, Courtesy of NHGRI}

Throughout my career as a leader in genomics, I have frequently...

U.S. Federal

two white cartridges for covid antigen testing

Theranos and COVID-19 Testing Are Mirror-Image Cautionary Tales

By Benjamin Mazer, The Atlantic | 09.15.2021

^{Photo by Steve Nomax on Unsplash}

Last week, prosecutors and defense attorneys made opening statements in the criminal trial of...

U.S. Federal

U.N. official calls for moratorium on artificial intelligence tools that breach human rights

By Sammy Westfall, The Washington Post | 09.15.2021

The rapid evolution of artificial-intelligence-based technologies and their adoption by businesses and governments have outpaced efforts to hold them to...

Other Countries