What kind of content and writers can you find on geneticsandsociety.org?

Updated

geneticsandsociety.org is the website of the Center for Genetics and Society (CGS). Its content is primarily commentary, policy analysis, book reviews, and aggregated news about human genetics, biotechnology, and their social and ethical implications. Writers include CGS staff, guest contributors, and journalists whose work is republished or cited from other outlets. If you want to follow debates around gene editing, eugenics, and genomic research rather than read original peer-reviewed studies, this site is aimed at you.

Main content sections

The site organizes material into several recurring sections and formats:

  • Biopolitical Times — CGS's own commentary and analysis stream, where staff and contributors publish pieces on current developments.
  • Aggregated News — articles originally published elsewhere, reposted or summarized with attribution.
  • Series — themed, multi-part collections. The page evidence shows "Legacies of Eugenics," described as a series of essays by leading thinkers exploring the history of eugenics and how it shapes the present, organized by Osagie K. Obasogie. The featured item was labeled the 16th installment.
  • Book reviews — e.g., a review by Pete Shanks of What We Inherit by Sam Trejo and Daphne O. Martschenko and Original Sin by Kathryn Paige Harden.
  • Topic tags — visible categories include Human Genetic Modification, Genomics, U.S. Federal, and U.S. States.

Who writes the content

Writers fall into a few recognizable groups:

Writer type Example from the site
CGS staff Katie Hasson, on media coverage of gene-edited embryos
CGS-affiliated contributors Pete Shanks, book reviews in Biopolitical Times
Guest contributors Claire Robinson and Jonathan Matthews, on a gene therapy trial
External journalists, aggregated or citing CGS Julia Métraux (Mother Jones), citing CGS's Katie Hasson; Miryam Naddaf (Nature)
Series organizers/essayists Osagie K. Obasogie, organizing the Legacies of Eugenics series; Terence Keel, writing in it

So a byline on the site does not automatically mean the author works for CGS. Some pieces are republished from outlets such as the Los Angeles Review of Books, Mother Jones, Nature, and GMWatch, and some cite CGS staff as sources rather than being written by them.

What the content actually covers

Recurring subjects visible on the homepage include:

  • Human genetic modification, including embryo gene editing and the prospect of gene-edited babies.
  • Eugenics and its legacies, treated as a historical and ongoing social issue.
  • Genomics and society, including reviews of trade books on genomic research.
  • Policy and institutions, such as reporting on Palantir's involvement in an NIH health initiative.
  • Gene therapy and epigenetic therapies, including critical coverage of hype and of a trial that ended in a child's death.

How to use the site

  • To follow CGS's own positions, read Biopolitical Times.
  • To scan what other outlets are reporting, use Aggregated News.
  • To go deep on one theme, follow a series such as Legacies of Eugenics.
  • To browse by subject, use the topic tags (Human Genetic Modification, Genomics, U.S. Federal, U.S. States).

The site also offers a Subscribe link at geneticsandsociety.org/subscribe. The available page evidence does not state whether subscribing involves a fee or a login requirement, so check the page itself before assuming it is free.

One practical caveat: because aggregated and republished items appear alongside original CGS writing, check the byline and the source line before attributing a claim to CGS itself.