Out today, a paradigm-shifting book on our biology by Roxanne Khamsi

Beyond Inheritance by Roxanne Khamsi: 9780593541913 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books “Constantly fascinating and impeccably reported...You won’t look at yourself in the same way again.” —Ed Yong, bestselling author of An Immense World and I Contain Multitudes A...

I'll be in conversation with @erictopol.bsky.social on his Ground Truths Substack live today at 12:30pm ET. Tune in for a conversation about my new book, Beyond Inheritance. Out today! tinyurl.com/5yjsr97n

Beyond Inheritance by Roxanne Khamsi: 9780593541913 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books “Constantly fascinating and impeccably reported...You won’t look at yourself in the same way again.” —Ed Yong, bestselling author of An Immense World and I Contain Multitudes A...

If you’re curious how this hidden layer of biology is changing medicine—and what it means for your health—pick up a copy of BEYOND INHERITANCE.

The book is out today:
tinyurl.com/5yjsr97n

(also now available as an audiobook 🎧)

We Are All Constantly Mutating—and That’s a Good Thing Genetic research has been complicating the idea of the genome as a determinative blueprint.

Early reviews from The New Yorker and The Wall Street Journal have been incredibly encouraging. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

This reporting changed how I see my own body.

I no longer see it as something fixed by the genes I was born with.

I view it as something constantly changing, adapting, and evolving.

To understand this hidden world, I dug into archival papers about a forgotten disciple of Darwin, visited labs sequencing DNA one cell at a time and spoke with patients whose “mysterious” illnesses suddenly made sense through our new understanding of #somaticmutation.

🧬 But there’s a twist.

Mutation isn’t just something that harms us.

In some cases, it can protect us—helping our bodies fight potentially deadly infections and adapt in real time.

These changes don’t just matter for cancer.

They’ve been linked to:

• autism
• epilepsy
• inflammation
• Alzheimer’s
• aging itself

And they may help explain why disease can appear “out of nowhere.”

What I found is this:

We are not genetically fixed.

Our cells are evolving—minute by minute, day by day.

I was trying to answer a simple but unsettling question:

If our DNA is constantly changing inside us…
what does that mean for our health?

I saw that finding in a study in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Instead of moving on, I picked up the phone and called the lead scientist behind it.

That call turned into 100+ interviews over 3+ years.

📖 My book BEYOND INHERITANCE is out today.
tinyurl.com/5yjsr97n

This journey started with a fact I couldn’t ignore:

Even in otherwise healthy adults, mutant cells can appear in the blood—quietly doubling the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Beyond Inheritance by Roxanne Khamsi: 9780593541913 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books “Constantly fascinating and impeccably reported...You won’t look at yourself in the same way again.” —Ed Yong, bestselling author of An Immense World and I Contain Multitudes A...

To dive deeper, order my new book, BEYOND INHERITANCE: Our Ever-Mutating Cells and a New Understanding of Health — available in print, ebook and audiobook (narrated by me!): www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/711682...

The DNA Fix for Aging Everyone’s DNA keeps mutating. Could correcting those errors lead to longevity?

Are we overlooking one of the most important causes of #aging? The first excerpt of my new book BEYOND INHERITANCE appears today in @theatlantic.com and explains how a once-fringe idea from is gaining traction — and could point to future anti-aging treatments: www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/...

Thank you, Apoorva — excited to talk with you about it in person at our event in New York on April 29th: www.mcnallyjackson.com/event/roxann...

I just got my advance copy today. Can't wait to read it. Especially the parts of about viral mutabillity and the problem of the poliovirus endgame.

Opinion | GLP-1 Experimentation Is Everywhere, and Science Can’t Keep Up Millions of Americans are experimenting with the drugs. Science can’t keep up.

A new article out by @juliabelluz.bsky.social today will change your mind about drugs like #Ozempic. The findings on inflammation came as a surprise to me: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

We Are All Constantly Mutating—and That’s a Good Thing Genetic research has been complicating the idea of the genome as a determinative blueprint.

The @newyorker.com has a wonderful review of my new book, Beyond Inheritance: "Khamsi’s emphasis on the beneficial aspects of somatic mutations is one of the most striking elements of her book.” Intrigued? Order a copy of the book (or audiobook) here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/711682...

Beyond Inheritance: Our Ever-Mutating Cells and a New Understanding of Health Our Ever-Mutating Cells and a New Understanding of Health

🚨🚨🚨 New book alert! Writer-extraordinaire @roxannekhamsi.bsky.social's debut book on the ever-changing state of our DNA is coming soon. 📚 Preorder it now! @bookshop.org 🚨🚨🚨 bookshop.org/p/books/beyo...

... and you can also come to one of my upcoming book events (more to be added soon):
Boston (April 23): www.eventbrite.com/e/roxanne-kh...
New York (April 29): www.mcnallyjackson.com/event/roxann...
Montreal (May 14): roxannekhamsi.com/radio-and-tv/

Can I change your mind about DNA? My first book, BEYOND INHERITANCE, descries a sea change in how we talk about our genes. It comes out in a couple weeks—preorder your copy or audiobook version (narrated by me) today: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/711682...

Immigrant Kids Detained in ‘Unsafe and Unsanitary’ Sites as Trump Team Seeks To End Protections - KFF Health News President Donald Trump’s Justice Department seeks to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement, which since 1997 has required U.S. immigration officials to hold migrant children in facilities that are...

The Trump admin is pushing to terminate rules that mandate basic rights & sanitary conditions for detained children.

Already, CBP is detaining kids in tents, airports & prison-like settings, according to lawyers

By @sandywestreporter.bsky.social @kffhealthnews.org kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

ICE Arrests Transplant Patient and Cuts Off Life-Saving Meds The 38-year-old hasn’t had his kidney transplant medication since he was detained on Thursday.

A transplant recipient whose body was rejecting his organ because DHS won’t give him his absolutely essential anti-rejection meds. www.thedailybeast.com/ice-arrests-...

24/

1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken.

Hundreds of kids are still detained.

We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵

Kennedy Plan to Test a Vaccine in West African Babies Is Blocked

“On Thursday, Quinhin Nantote, Guinea-Bissau’s minister of public health, said the study had not received proper ethical approval, and his office has suspended it… “We have no evidence of any meeting they held, we don’t even have minutes of a negotiated approval,” he said.”

Screenshot of Rx Inspector webpage, where users can look up where their generic prescription drugs were made. A blue button prompts people to "begin your search." The background illustration shows a man inspecting a giant red and white pill capsule.

THREAD: The FDA has made it difficult to find where medications are made. Today we're changing that with our latest tool.

With Rx Inspector, it’s possible to see your drug’s manufacturing facility and what the FDA found during its inspections.

Here's how you can use it. 1/

One of my high-level professional fears is the destruction of Google Scholar. And now, here we go.

Americans Don’t Take Climate Change Seriously. Might I Suggest One Simple Fix? It's time to retire the old catchphrase.

There's a big problem with the "two degrees" of warming message in the climate conversation. I wrote about it for @slate.com:
slate.com/technology/2...

Whoa-zempic! The next wave of obesity drugs is pushing the limits of weight loss.

New article by me:
You've heard of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic.
Get ready for the next wave of obesity medications that influence *amylin*: www.theatlantic.com/health/2025/...

This morning, I'm headed to @ScienceWriters' #SciWri25 — looking forward to catching up with folks in Chicago.