GENETICS

Should we get rid of race in genetics?

Xavier Symons | 13 February 2016 | Comments

tags: eugenics, genetics, racism

Racial categories have long been used in genetics, though recently academics have been discouraging their use.

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Is it ethical to investigate the genetic component of IQ?

Michael Cook | 30 September 2015 | Comments

tags: gene sequencing, genetics, intelligence

Will the have a chilling effect on programs to improve educational outcomes among disadvantaged populations?

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Not nature OR nurture but nature AND nurture

Michael Cook | 05 June 2015 | Comments

tags: genetics, nature or nurture

It's roughly 50/50, say researchers.

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Gene of the Week 2: voting preferences

Michael Cook | 18 April 2015 | Comments

tags: gene of the week, genetic determinism, genetic fundamentalism, genetics

“Our choices at the polling booth may not be as free or rational as we would like to believe”

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Gene of the Week 1: sex offending

Michael Cook | 18 April 2015 | Comments

tags: gene of the week, genetic fundamentalism, genetics, genetics and law

“Sex offending is written in DNA of some men” in the headlines after publication of a Swedish study.

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Have Chinese scientists discovered a “singleton gene”?

Michael Cook | 29 November 2014 | Comments

tags: gene of the week, genetics

More evidence that articles about genetic determinism are positively correlated with provocative headlines.

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Is the UK too quick on the draw about 3-parent babies?

Michael Cook | 07 June 2014 | Comments

tags: genetic engineering, genetics, mitochondrial replacement, UK

Two American bioethicists have questioned the haste with which the United Kingdom is seeking to legalise mitochondrial transfer

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Genetic predisposition as a legal defence

Xavier Symons | 12 March 2014 | Comments

tags: genetics, genetics and law

What is the relationship between genetic predisposition and upbringing?

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Gene silencing technique offers hope for cure for Down syndrome

Michael Cook | 02 November 2013 | Comments

tags: Down syndrome, genetics

Is it possible to “cure” Down syndrome? Jeanne Lawrence, of the University Massachusetts Medical School, believes that it could happen some day.

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Are we fated to fight?

Xavier Symons | 05 October 2013 | Comments

tags: genetics

With the increasing impact of evolutionary biology, deterministic explanations for human behavior are gaining more traction among scientists and in the media. One claim is that we are hardwired for violent conflict.

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Family of Henrietta Lacks reaches agreement with researchers

Michael Cook | 11 August 2013 | Comments

tags: genetics, informed consent

The National Institutes of Health has reached an agreement with the family of the late Henrietta Lacks

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UK to allow research into three-parent embryos

Michael Cook | 29 June 2013 | Comments

tags: genetics, mitochondrial replacement, three-parent embryos

The UK government has decided that it will allow the creation of three-parent embryos to prevent the births of children with mitochondrial diseases.

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Genetics at the Supreme Court 1: patenting genes

Xavier Symons | 15 June 2013 | Comments

tags: genetic tests, genetics, US Supreme Court

In a unanimous 9-0 decision, the US Supreme Court has ruled that human genes cannot be patented.

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Genetics at the Supreme Court 2: the “genetic panopticon”

Xavier Symons | 15 June 2013 | Comments

tags: genetic privacy, genetics, US Supreme Court

Earlier this month the US Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that DNA swabbing of people who have been arrested is constitutional.

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Medicine students peer into their own genetic future

Xavier Symons | 15 June 2013 | Comments

tags: genetics, medical education

Stanford University has introduced an ambitious new genetics subject into its medical curriculum, in which students study their own genetic data.

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Evil is all in the brain. Or is it?

Michael Cook | 07 February 2013 | Comments

tags: brain scans, determinism, evil, genetics

After 3000 years of speculation, a German neurologist has finally located the source of evil. Well, at least Das Bild says he has. Gerhard Roth showed the tabloid images of the offending portion of the brain. It is an 'evil patch' in the brain's central lobe which shows up as a dark mass on X-rays, he says.

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Save newborn blood samples, say bioethicists

Michael Cook | 11 November 2012 | Comments

tags: genetics, privacy

Blood samples left over from newborn screening tests are a genetic treasure trove which should be available to researchers.

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Gene of the week: internet addiction

Michael Cook | 14 September 2012 | Comments

tags: gene of the week, genetics

Everybody is talking about internet addiction – many people spend hours online and immediately start feeling bad if they are unable to do so. Medically, this phenomenon has not been as clearly described as nicotine or alcohol dependency. But a German study in the Journal of Addiction Medicine suggests that there are molecular-genetic connections in internet addiction, too.

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Politics is in your genes

Michael Cook | 01 September 2012 | Comments

tags: gene of the week, genetics, politics and bioethics

Studies asserting that political preferences are genetically determined are dog-whistles for the media and consequently great publicity for journals. So on cue, at the beginning of the Republican National Convention in Tampa this week, Trends in Genetics issued a press release about a highly positive review of research into genetics and political behaviour.

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Hungarian “racial purity” genome test slammed

Jared Yee | 23 June 2012 | Comments

tags: genetic testing, genetics, racism

The Hungarian Medical Research Council (ETT), which advises the government on health policy, has asked public prosecutors to investigate a genetic-testing company that confirmed that a member of parliament was of pure Hungarian stock and did not have Jewish or Roma heritage.

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