In 2006, in the second issue of the second year of this journal I wrote an essay, Homo Superior, and said, “What could be more natural than wanting a healthy beautiful baby? Has there ever been a time in history when parents, even in the midst of disasters and despair, did not wish to be delivered of a healthy child? And who wouldn’t want to have a son or daughter who was as smart as Einstein, as athletic as Michael Jordan, and as attractive as well, name the person whose looks you find most appealing? What could be more natural? But this deep-seated drive when linked to the onrushing train of genetic medicine is creating a trend that will shape—both literally and figuratively—the future of our species”.1

For most of our history as a species, we sapiens of the genus Homo have shared the planet with other hominid species. We know this because genetic science, by extracting DNA from ancient bone fragments, has transformed paleoarchaeology from speculation to certainty. This new research, which is amended and extended almost weekly, tells us we still retain, you retain, genes resulting from encounters Homo Sapiens had in Deep Time with Denisovans […]