Critical Issues in Literature

"CRISPR is fast becoming a household term, with one of the key scientists exploring this gene-editing mechanism following close behind. Jennifer Doudna, PhD, a biochemist at the University of California, Berkeley, co-authored a breakthrough paper in 2012 examining how it works and suggesting how it might be harnessed by humans. Such a tool is already beginning to transform agriculture, medicine, and our understanding of the human species. It's also dusting up a fair amount of controversy. With transformative technologies come ethical questions: How should CRISPR be used, for what, and by whom? No surprise, these questions are being debated in boardrooms and in the courts as leading scientists compete for startup funding and face off against their former collaborators in patent disputes about who can use the tech."

"Imagine that you could open an app, while you're riding on the subway or sitting at a bar, that could tell you everything about everyone sitting around you. Using facial recognition software, it could tap into social networks and databases to show you each person's name and occupation. It could tell you whether you share mutual friends or common interests. It could even pull up their financial or criminal records. The potential for abuse is so dire, even Microsoft's president recently called on the government to regulate the technology. Judith Donath, a social technology researcher who has spent decades studying online culture at MIT and Harvard, believes this sort of advanced facial recognition technology is inevitable. But whether it turns into the ultimate icebreaker or a digital panopticon, she says, is entirely up to us."

"Chips will offer more benefits as the technology progresses, McMullan believes. "We are developing medical uses that will monitor vital signs. Doctors will be able to proactively treat patients rather than always react," he says. McMullan believes the numbers of chipped employees worldwide will reach millions over a few years because the benefits of a sub-$100 chip are potentially huge."

"Technology has always promised a better future … eventually. Somehow the real breakthroughs have always seemed to be just around the corner. But somehow, when we weren't quite paying attention, the future actually arrived. Thanks to forward-thinking researchers calling on advances in genomics, artificial intelligence, food science, and drug hacking, a more resilient, enlightened, and cognitively-, physically-, and sexually-enhanced human already walks among us. (And her skin is amazing.) Here, eight exciting new health technologies - and where they're heading next."

"This is not a joke. Nor is it a Black Mirror episode. It's Paid Off, a new program on the channel TruTV. And at a time when politics and television have become hopelessly entangled, here is television that feels like a highly concentrated, mildly nauseating encapsulation of the zeitgeist. "It's a show that shouldn't exist," the host, Michael Torpey, told me over the phone. "When people see this as the best avenue for paying off their debt, it's crazy.""

"People who know Sef Scott know he doesn't normally speak. The 17-year-old from Plano, Tex., has autism, and other than quoting lines from favorite movies, he is mostly nonverbal. So the members of the Plano Senior High School Class of 2018 - along with Sef's relatives and even his father - were stunned June 9 when he took the mic and addressed his fellow graduates."

"No matter how well she did, someone else was doing better. "The pressure I put on myself was out of control," she says. She says she felt the pressure all around her - from peers, teachers and her parents. Newfound awareness of these kinds of struggles, has started a conversation - and new initiatives - in her community. A group of parents is trying to shift the culture to balance the focus on achievement with an emphasis on well-being. Part of the equation is freeing up kids to find their own motivation and life path. There is a growing body of evidence pointing to elevated risks of anxiety, depression, and drug and alcohol use among kids raised in privileged communities."

"For the past 70 years, scientists in Britain have been studying thousands of children through their lives to find out why some end up happy and healthy while others struggle. It's the longest-running study of human development in the world, and it's produced some of the best-studied people on the planet while changing the way we live, learn and parent. Reviewing this remarkable research, science journalist Helen Pearson shares some important findings and simple truths about life and good parenting."

"For the past 70 years, scientists in Britain have been studying thousands of children through their lives to find out why some end up happy and healthy while others struggle. It's the longest-running study of human development in the world, and it's produced some of the best-studied people on the planet while changing the way we live, learn and parent. Reviewing this remarkable research, science journalist Helen Pearson shares some important findings and simple truths about life and good parenting."

"A major drone company and a major police-camera company are teaming up, and the possibilities are frightening."

"Lindo stumbled out of the blocks and hit the final hurdle. The miscues ultimately didn't hurt him in his quest for the first-place finish as Lindo and Hunterdon Central's Jameson Woodell put on another classic race a week after the two ran top six national times at the Group 4 Championships. Lindo leaned at the finish line to take first with a US#3 52.28 with Woodell taking second in 52.35, good for the fourth-fastest time in the nation this season."

"I traveled to Ukraine because Zukin promised unusual access to his private fertility clinic, including the first demonstration for a U.S. journalist of how scientists create "three-parent" babies - a procedure prohibited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Leading ethicists and genetics researchers criticize the clinic for rushing ahead to use this method for infertility. No one knows if children produced this way will be healthy, they say. And some worry the procedure may open the door to "designer babies." The clinic's procedure involves using the DNA from three different people: The woman trying to have a baby, her male partner and the 37 mitochondrial genes from the woman who donated the egg. "This is pretty troubling," says Marcy Darnovsky, who heads the Center for Genetics and Society, a U.S.-based watchdog group. But Zukin dismisses those criticisms. "As a doctor I understand only one thing: We have parents who couldn't have children and now they have their own biological child. That's all," Zukin says."

"Security experts warn that many Wi-Fi baby monitors - and other devices in the Internet of things - are vulnerable to hacking. In 2015, the security analytics company Rapid7 published a case study of baby monitors that found a number of security vulnerabilities. The risk is not just to privacy and peace of mind: A hacker could use a baby monitor to gain access to a home's network to get information off computers, possibly for financial gain."

"Affluence-not willpower-seems to be what's behind some kids' capacity to delay gratification."

"Big questions and provocative conclusions about technology and culture. A new podcast from The Atlantic with Derek Thompson."

"The meritocratic class has mastered the old trick of consolidating wealth and passing privilege along at the expense of other people's children. We are not innocent bystanders to the growing concentration of wealth in our time. We are the principal accomplices in a process that is slowly strangling the economy, destabilizing American politics, and eroding democracy. Our delusions of merit now prevent us from recognizing the nature of the problem that our emergence as a class represents. We tend to think that the victims of our success are just the people excluded from the club. But history shows quite clearly that, in the kind of game we're playing, everybody loses badly in the end."

"By now, Amazon's Echo devices are somewhat famous for their eerie glitches-some, like unsolicited laughter, are benign, while others, like responding to undetectable commands embedded in podcasts or songs, are decidedly more sinister. And on Thursday, Washington state news outlet KIRO 7 reported yet another instance of an Alexa-powered Echo device acting of its own accord. According to KIRO 7, one family in Portland, Oregon, received a bizarre phone call two weeks ago. "Unplug your Alexa devices right now," the caller told them. "You're being hacked." What had happened, apparently, was that the family's Echo devices had quietly sent recordings of a mundane, private conversation to someone in the family's contact list-in this case, one of the husband's employees."

"Newark, New Jersey's largest city, is taking the concept of a neighborhood watch to a whole new level. The city is installing hundreds of surveillance cameras to create a virtual block watch. Some residents are concerned about the technology's implications for people's privacy."

"Commencement season is upon us. Cue the inspiring speeches, pearls of wisdom and tales of caution. Celebrities, advocates and tech tycoons reflected on themes like #MeToo, polarization, pride and purpose. If you were giving a commencement speech, what would you say? What do you wish you had known when you were a 20-something? Here's the catch: Keep it under 50 words or tweet-length. Fill out the form below or tweet using the hashtag #nytspeech. We'll publish a selection of the most inspiring, witty and everyday useful in the coming weeks. Need inspiration? Take our quiz. Go forth and do good."

"Scientists for the first time have successfully edited genes in human embryos to repair a common and serious disease-causing mutation, producing apparently healthy embryos, according to a study published on Wednesday. The research marks a major milestone and, while a long way from clinical use, it raises the prospect that gene editing may one day protect babies from a variety of hereditary conditions. But the achievement is also an example of human genetic engineering, once feared and unthinkable, and is sure to renew ethical concerns that some might try to design babies with certain traits, like greater intelligence or athleticism."