Here is some of what we’re reading this week at pgEd. This week’s articles span a wide range of topics including a research success for genome editing, the genetic underpinnings of food preference, de-extinction (with quotes from pgEd advisor, Professor George Church), mutations (good, bad, or indifferent – we all have them), and the complex intersection of human behavior, genetics, and the criminal justice system. For more on this last topic, check out pgEd’s newly updated lesson entitled “Genes, environment and genetic complexity: Aggression in humans.”
A shot against heart attacks?
Harvard researchers say simple ‘genome editing’ may dramatically lower risk of such crises in future
by B. D. Colen, Harvard Gazette
June 10, 2014
Our Tastes For Certain Foods May Be Written in Our Genes
By Carl Engelking, Discover, D-brief
June 5, 2014
Fact or Fiction?: Mammoths Can Be Brought Back from Extinction
Is de-extinction a real possibility?
by David Biello, Scientific American
June 10, 2014
We’re All X-Men as Far as Genetic Mutations Go
By E. Paul Zehr, Scientific American, guest blog
June 5, 2014
My DNA Made Me Do It? How Behavioral Genetics Is Influencing the Justice System
by Virginia Hughes, National Geographic, Phenomena: Only Human
June 4, 2014
Inclusion on our list does not imply any endorsement from pgEd. Also, there are many wonderful resources that we will not be able to cite, and we apologize in advance for works that we have not included.
Image credit: “Bootstrap DNA by Charles Jencks, 2003” by mira66 (CC BY 2.0)