Human Features
The GLP tackles innovations in human genetics and biotechnology. We highlight the work of our own writers, as well as that of contributors from around the Web. The GLP does not take a position on genetics-related issues; any opinions expressed belong to the authors.
Categories include:
- CRISPR and gene editing
- Gene therapy
- Stem cell research
- Genetic diseases
- Synthetic biology
- Epigenetics
- Biodrugs (pharmacogenetics)
- Personal genomics
- Ancestry and evolution
- Ethics and regulations
AI disinformation stress test: Challenges and response strategies
To solve big problems and navigate a chaotic world, we first need a clear, shared understanding of the facts. Today, ...
Why โsupport supplementsโ for GLP-1 users are mostly a waste of money
Weight-loss injections have rapidly moved from specialist clinics to social media feeds and high-street pharmacies. Known as GLP-1 medications, they ...
The Trump administration has run out more than 4,000 National Institutes of Health employees. Here are the consequences
Marc Ernstoff, a physician who has pioneered immunotherapy research and treatments for cancer patients, said his work as a federal ...
Doctors needs nutrition classes? A physician unmasks another MAHA myth
To hear RFK, Jr. talk about medical school, you may think doctors enter health care oblivious to basic facts about ...
Viewpoint: How do you sell evidence-based health and science in a world where facts donโt matter?
[B]efore whateverย thisย period is, the idea that public resistance to science was essentially a knowledge problem โ that more information โfixedโ ...
Viewpoint: โMake America Healthy Againโ appeals to fake nostalgia about non-existent golden age
โMake America healthy againโ sounds like a great slogan. It is loaded with nostalgia and โฆ haziness. What is that ...
Ban the ads? Should government restrict prescription drug commercials?
Tamar Abrams had a lousy couple of years in 2022 and โ23. Both her parents died; a relationship ended; she ...
RFK, Jr. was approved as HHS secretary only because doctor-senator Bill Cassidy cast the deciding vote. Anti-vaxxers are now gunning for him
The ambitious liver doctor would go just about anywhere in his home state to give people the hepatitis B vaccine ...
GLP podcast: Miracle drug? Tech bros inflate depression-fighting effects of psychedelic 5-MeO-DMT
The greater the media hype around psychedelics, the more skeptical you should be. A perfect example of why this skepticism ...
Viewpoint: Is Trump turning against RFK, Jr.โs vaccine rejectionism?
Every fall, I scramble to get my garden hoses into storage before the first deep freeze. Like clockwork, every spring, ...
Shilajit Ayurvedic sex drive-boosting myth: Tar-like ooze extracted from Himalayan rocks doesn’t work
Shilajit is the latest supplement marketed online as a โnatural testosterone boosterโ. Promoted by influencers, wellness brands and biohacking communities, ...
Viewpoint: Researchers claiming living near nuclear energy causes cancer botched their research
In December 2025, researchers led by Yazan Alwadi at Harvardโs T.H Chan School of Public Health published a paper in ...
Viewpoint โ RFK, Jr. vs. fluoride: The next big health brawlโscience be damned
The EPA recently took its first step toward determining safe levels of fluoride in drinking water, publishing a "Preliminary Assessment ...
Hypnagogic state: The twilight zone between sleep and wakefulness is a creative sweet spot. Here’s how you can make it work for you
The Beatlesโ song Yesterday was written in what psychologists refer to as the โhypnagogic stateโ. This is the twilight zone ...
Netflix plastic documentary is scare nonsense packaged as science
Netflix, which has made simplified propaganda many times before (See: Dopesick), sticks to a familiar formula in a thoroughly slanted ...
GLP podcast: Overdose crisisโIllicit opioids spread like drug-resistant bacteria?
The harder the government cracks down on a drug, the more deadly its illicit replacement that emerges from the black ...
Viewpoint: Is vaping a pathway to tobacco addiction or quitting tobacco altogether? It depends
In November, I got a LinkedIn message from a consultant who works for one of the major vape (aka e-cigarette) ...
Microplastic scare claims take another turnโStudy suggests lab gloves may be key culprit
It seems like every day a new study finds tiny plastic particles called microplastics where they should not be: in ...
Viewpoint: Worried about Big Ag and Big Pharma? Theyโre nothing compared to the grifting hypocrisy of the MAHA wellness movement
RFK Jr. rails endlessly against Big Pharm and Big Food. And, in many instances, for good reason. But there is ...
How liberal Paul Ehrlichโs 1970s โPopulation Bombโ panic helped shape todayโs anti-immigration ideology
Paul Ehrlich opened his 1968 book โThe Population Bombโ with a scene recounting returning to his hotel through a crowded ...
From ideology to engineering: As green opposition to nuclear energy softens, the debate shifts to what can scale
For years, the countryโs major environmental groups stood shoulder to shoulder against nuclear power. That unanimity may be starting to ...
A longer leash on life: The no longer quixotic quest to extend our dogsโ golden years
Dog owners do many things to keep our canine companions happy and healthy, and Iโm no exception. I flew from ...
โNo fury like scorned MAHA momsโ: Will RFK, Jr.โs anti-vaccine policies tear coalition apart?
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is fielding pressure from the White House to relax his controversial ...
Viewpoint: There are dangerous consequences to firing credible scientists and gutting U.S. health agencies
In the past year, more than half of the leaders of the Institutes and Centers (IC) at the National Institutes ...
Congress created a mechanism to address rare vaccine injuries. RFK, Jr. is poised to tear it apart
For nearly four decades, Americans who believe they have been harmed by a vaccine have had access to a little-known ...
Viewpoint: In defense of plastics (and a rebuttal of ideology-infused misinterpretations of risk science)
Close observers will note that journalists in the legacy press have a perplexing habit of engaging in outright activism for ...
Send women to jail for decades for having an abortion? Extremist Republicans get pushback, even from some in their own party
When a trio of Republican state lawmakers introduced a bill last year that would subject women who obtain abortions to ...
