News

IN THE Operation Varsity Blues scandal of 2019, 50 wealthy parents were charged with trying to get their children into elite universities through fraudulent means. The story dramatically demonstrated the lengths to which some parents will go to ensure their...

The gene-editing tool CRISPR enabled a groundbreaking new treatment for sickle-cell disease, and in the future, scientists anticipate that it could be used to tackle cancer, forms of inherited blindness, various superbug infections and even HIV...

There was immediate backlash when Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled in February that embryos created through in vitro fertilization qualified as...

When venture capitalist Jack Abraham first began dating his wife, Gabriella Massamillo, he insisted on one condition: that when they...

red blood cells
By Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR | 12.23.2022

When Kathleen Aukstikalnis was expecting her first baby, she turned to a common prenatal test that a lot of her...

teal chromosomes on a black background
By Dan Robitzski, The Scientist | 12.22.2022

Scientists have developed a new line of stem cells—all derived from the same person—that can be used to study sex...

shadows of prisoners against a brick wall with a chain link fence
By Salvador Hernandez, Los Angeles Times | 12.22.2022

UC San Francisco has issued a public apology after conducting an investigation into experiments performed by two faculty members in...

He Jiankui
By Emily Mullin, Wired | 12.21.2022

In November 2018, Chinese scientist He Jiankui shocked the world when he announced, first on YouTube and then at an international...

Henrietta Lacks
By Derrick Bryson Taylor, The New York Times | 12.20.2022

A life-size bronze statue of Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cancer cells were taken without her consent and were used...

parents with a baby in the middle
By Blair Sowry, PET | 12.19.2022

The European Commission, the European Union (EU) executive responsible for proposing legislation, has proposed new regulation to allow parenthood rights...

an ad for surrogacy
By Shanti Das, The Guardian | 12.18.2022

Women recruited by an international surrogacy agency to carry babies for wealthy clients are being asked to undergo “unethical” medical...

100 dollar bills
By Angela Saini, Undark | 12.16.2022

In 1961, a new journal of ethnology and anthropology appeared on academic bookshelves. Nearly every page betrayed an obsession with...