GLP Podcast: Loneliness causes dementia? Parkinson’s-fighting GM tomatoes; ‘Sovietizing’ science

Loneliness could drastically boost your risk of developing dementia. Genetically engineered tomatoes may be our first line of defense against Parkinson’s in the coming years. A growing chorus of academics fears that ‘fashionable ideologies’ have revived Soviet-era censorship in scientific research.

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Join geneticist Kevin Folta and GLP contributor Cameron English on episode 157 of Science Facts and Fallacies as they break down these latest news stories:

• Loneliness shown to triple risk of dementia

Are you lonely? A recent epidemiological study has found that you may be much more likely to develop dementia than someone not afflicted by loneliness. The causal direction of the association is still unclear, loneliness may just be an early symptom of dementia instead of a risk-factor for the disease. And if lonely people do face a heightened dementia risk, we still don’t know why. Nonetheless, there seems to be a clear relationship between the two, and we’re much closer to figuring out how it works.

• Let food be thy medicine: How GMO tomatoes could help Parkinson’s patients

Scientists in the UK have engineered GM tomatoes that produce L-Dopa, a dopamine precursor used to treat the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease (PD). A gene in beets (Beta vulgaris) is know to catalyze the production of L-DOPA, so scientists isolated this segment of DNA and bred it into tomatoes, which are widely consumed around the world. The hope is that these enhanced fruits will serve as effective, low-cost alternatives to current PD therapies. Will these disease-fighting tomatoes ever make it to commercialization?

• Viewpoint: ‘Sovietizing’ Western science? Conflating STEM research with fashionable ideologies raises Orwellian concerns

The social justice movement has lots its way, a growing coalition of academics fears. Instead of righting past wrongs, advocates of “decolonizing” science have morphed into champions of censorship who will silence anyone who dares to question their agenda—a hallmark of Stalin’s Russia, which sacrificed its own technological advancement to preserve its ideological purity. Are Western countries flirting with the same outcome by restraining what their scientists can say and do?

Kevin M. Folta is a professor, keynote speaker and podcast host. Follow Professor Folta on Twitter @kevinfolta

Cameron J. English is the director of bio-sciences at the American Council on Science and Health. Visit his website and follow ACSH on Twitter @ACSHorg