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
Image of a black and white hospital hallway

Where science meets fiction: the dark history of eugenics

By Adam Rutherford, The Guardian | 06.19.2022

Photo by Ante Samarzija on Unsplash

It’s a quirk of history that the foundations of modern biology – and as...

Other Countries
Image of test tubes

This Father’s Day, spare a thought for the people touched by anonymous sperm donation

By Alison Motluk , The Globe and Mail | 06.18.2022

As you drop your dad’s card into the mailbox, or dial him for a quick chat, or arrange a little...

Assisted Reproduction
CRISPR vial

Children to get CRISPR treatment for sickle cell disease in trial

By Michael Le Page, New Scientist | 06.16.2022

CRISPR gene-editing trials for treating sickle cell disease and beta thalassaemia are being extended to include children aged under 12...

Human Genetic Modification
Surgical tools

Disgraced Italian surgeon convicted of criminal harm to stem cell patient

By Gretchen Vogel , Science | 06.16.2022

Photo by Piron Guillaume on Unsplash

A surgeon who just a decade ago was celebrated around the globe as a...

Stem Cells
AI

What Will It Take to Decolonize Artificial Intelligence?

By Robin Donovan, NEO.LIFE | 06.16.2022

There’s a joke in Silicon Valley about how AI was developed: Privileged coders were building machine learning algorithms to replace...

Global Governance
Image of forest

White Nationalists Want to Reclaim Nature as a Safe Space for Racists

By Tess Owen, Vice | 06.15.2022

Photo by Milk-Tea on Unsplash

America’s white nationalists are once again embracing the great outdoors. 

At first glance, it may...

U.S. States
Image of stem cells

Washington AG wins $500,000 for clients of Seattle company selling unproven stem cell treatments

By Helen Smith, King 5 | 06.14.2022

Seattle-based company US Stemology must pay $500,000 in restitution to patients after offering unproven stem cell treatments they claimed could...

Stem Cells
Stem Cells

Royalty Language Cracks Firewall Between Lawmakers and $12 Billion California Stem Cell Agency

By David Jensen, The California Stem Cell Report | 06.14.2022

Editor’s note: The article below first appeared today on Capitol Weekly, the respected online California news and information service...

Stem Cells