Sociality, cooperation and “prosocial” behaviors are the foundation of human society (and of the extraordinary development of our brain) and yet, taken individually, people often show huge variation in terms of altruism/egoism, both among individuals and in the same individual at different moments in time. What causes these differences in behavior? An answer may be found by observing the activity…
The impassioned quest to label foods made with genetically modified organisms is heading for the states. “Don’t think that it’s not coming to you,” warned Hawaii Attorney General David Louie at a meeting of state attorneys general. They certainly understood. In 2014 alone, 25 states have proposed 67 pieces of legislation related to GMO labeling. After near misses in California…
Shayna Svihovec (2014 Human Biology and Society BA major) is one of three Jessie Alpaugh Senior Prize winners awarded this year in the Disability Studies minor. With her project, titled “Straddling the Line Between the Deaf and Hearing Communities in a Hearing Dominated World,” she plans to add knowledge to the field of deaf and disability studies. She hopes to eliminate…
These days many consumers rely on the “Nutrition Facts” labels on the back of food products to count calories, check fat content and decide if what they’re eating is healthy. These labels aren’t perfect, though, and with that in mind, the Food and Drug Administration has a rule under consideration to revamp the labeling requirements. The rule’s main goal is…
Dolly the sheep enjoyed a brief and highly publicized life as the first mammal cloned from an adult cell before succumbing to lung disease in 2003 at age 6. But an attempt to patent Dolly, and lay commercial claim to animals produced by cloning, survived much longer. But that nearly 10-year-long saga also appears to have ended last week when…
Counsyl, a Silicon Valley company that screens prospective parents for their risk of passing on rare inherited diseases, has expanded its genetic testing service to assess your inherited risks for breast, ovarian, prostate, and pancreatic cancers. The expanded testing, which arrived on the heels of $28 million in new funding raised from Goldman Sachs and others, comes in the midst…