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...

tree logo of The Hastings Center
By Inmaculada De Melo-Martín, The Hastings Center Report | 08.22.2022

Advances in genome editing technologies allow scientists to add, remove, or alter genetic material at particular locations in the human genome...

a dna helix with some tweezers
By Corinne Othenin-Girard, Philosophical Investigations | 08.22.2022

Imagine a world in which parents have the option to go to a geneticist to discuss the ‘genetic fix’ choices...

man with bionic arm
By Britt H. Young, IEEE Spectrum | 08.21.2022

Photo by Henk Mul on Unsplash

In Jules Verne’s 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon, members...

A Tasmanian tiger
By Editorial, The Guardian | 08.19.2022

"tasmanian tiger" by nicolas.boullosa is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The last official sighting of a Tasmanian...

a gavel next to a gold plaque that says "patent law"
By Joe Mullin, Electronic Frontier Foundation | 08.18.2022

recently introduced patent bill would authorize patents on abstract ideas just for including computer jargon, and would even legalize...

a golden dna strand
By Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 08.17.2022

After 10 years of effort, medical researchers at Columbia University have developed a very fast and cheap way to detect...

the official FDA building with a sign in front
By Zachary Brennan, Endpoints News | 08.17.2022

The FDA on Wednesday approved the first gene therapy for a chronic condition — bluebird bio’s new Zynteglo (beti-cel) as...

a display of all chromosomes
By Bonnie Rochman, MIT Technology Review | 08.16.2022

When Ollie’s mother, Katie, was nine weeks pregnant, her obstetrician-gynecologist’s office in Boulder, Colorado, offered her a special $100 price...