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What makes us who we are?

Modified Humans

Gene-editing technology is rapidly advancing, writes Cal Flyn, but what about the unintended consequences?

Reproductive technologies of all kinds have always been a source of public anxiety. He’s gene-edited babies are far from the first to have prompted widespread condemnation, even horror. The earliest successful instance of sperm donation, for example, itself took place under ethically dubious circumstances.

Giving away our DNA

Sold as an empowering route to better health, are genetic testing kits any more than a data grab? asks Giovanni Tiso

But if most of 23andMe’s customers are merely interested in the geographical origins of their DNA, we might wonder what makes the proposition so valuable to investors.

The chains of the past

Black people are overrepresented in the psychiatric system, as Ayo Awokoya discovers. Could the controversial theory of inherited trauma help explain why?

As she went cyclically in and out of wards, Samira felt she was getting worse, with frequent misdiagnosis and heavy drug treatments. She felt as if her mental health is-sues were at the centre of who she was. Year after year, she would return, unable to move forward and leave the con-fines of the NHS hotel behind. It felt like containment, she told me, not treatment.

The Q&A: Tom Oliver

JP O'Malley speaks to the professor and prominent systems thinker about the idea that the self is an illusion.

Many religions have been saying this through the ages. But what I’m bringing to the table is an evidence-based approach. Neuroscience shows our neural networks are hugely dynamic: always changing to the physical and social context we are surrounded by. Every time we speak to someone, every word and touch we receive is changing the neural networks in our brains.

The summer 2020 issue of New Humanist is on sale now! Subscribe here for as little as £10 a year.

algeria

Also in this issue:

  • Layli Foroudi reports on pro-democracy protests in Algeria, which are invoking the war of independence
  • Which citizens are being protected at the expense of which others? Rahila Gupta on the Prevent strategy and state surveillance
  • Samira Ahmed on the loss of common rituals in the time of coronavirus
  • The power of nature is the key to new techniques in chemistry, as Peter Forbes explains
  • Russia has a long and surprising history of pacifism, as Maxim Edwards discovers
  • Sami Kent on the lasting impact of Turkey’s 1925 hat laws
  • How should we commemorate historical injustice? asks Sarah Jilani
  • Niki Seth-Smith on the female authors taking on Silicon Valley
  • Jojo Rabbit is just the latest example of an entire subgenre of films that romanticise the Holocaust. James Robins explores
  • Caroline Crampton on the rise of on-screen fertility problems
  • PLUS: Columns from Laurie Taylor and Marcus Chown, book reviews, the latest developments in biology, chemistry and physics; cryptic crossword and Chris Maslanka's quiz

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