Science of the Future
Africa’s food security challenges: Is nuclear agriculture a solution or a problem?
Climate change is an ongoing and increasing threat to African agriculture. Prolonged droughts, pest outbreaks, and poor soil quality are ...
‘Truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary’—CDC’s top vaccine scientist eviscerates RFK, Jr. in forced resignation letter
Peter Marks, the top Food and Drug Administration official who oversaw vaccines, gene therapies, and the blood supply, resigned [March ...
Sticky pesticides: Farmers don’t like using pesticides anymore than we like traces of them on our food. Here’s a smart way forward
It's easy for Greenpeace employees in cities to talk about farming but in the real world, without pesticides we'd lose ...
AI poised to revolutionize farming. Here’s how
In agriculture, AI is already helping farmers to monitor crop health, tailor the delivery of inputs, and make harvesting more ...
Silicon Freud: Can AI replace the couch?
Psychiatry was one of my early rotations as a third-year medical student just beginning clinical training. After years of exposure ...
Treasure map of genetic secrets—Bigger and more flavorful eggplants and tomatoes on the horizon
Bigger and more flavorful tomatoes and eggplants may soon become a reality, thanks to a team of scientists at Johns Hopkins ...
Lazarus plants: ‘Zombie’ plants that spring back to life hold keys to developing technologies to adapt agriculture to climate change.
To protect crops from rising droughts, scientists are looking to the genes of a small group of plants that can ...
Viewpoint: Why you should read science headlines with caution
The strong correlation between flashiness and wrongness comes from several factors. First, much, if not most, scientific research is wrong. That’s why ...
Luxury, medicine and life itself sprout from petri dishes—and not just meats
Lab-grown diamonds offer an ethical, sustainable alternative to mined diamonds. ... Additionally, lab-grown diamonds are more affordable, typically costing 40% ...
As the Trump administration withdraws support for biotechnology innovation pushed by former president Biden, Europe is poised to seize the initiative
The U.S. administration of President Donald Trump has revoked Executive Order 14081, "Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, ...
Korean Muslim group becomes latest religious organization to issue a Fatwa approving cultivated meat as Halal
Cultivated meat can be considered Halal and consumed by Muslims, provided they’re sourced and produced in accordance with Halal standards, ...
Cosmic cuisine: Synthetic biologists are exploring cellular agriculture to grow food in space
[P]roducing food in space is incredibly difficult. There is very limited space aboard spacecraft, and microgravity impacts the growth of ...
Viewpoint: For European farming to innovate, patents are critical
EU policymakers are currently negotiating new rules for developing innovative plant varieties through new genomic techniques (NGTs). These techniques allow plant breeders ...
Vaccines for cancers? It’s coming, and we’ll have COVID response-spurred mRNA vaccines to thank
Cancer vaccines weren’t a proper field of research before the pandemic. There was nothing. Apart from one exception, pretty much ...
Push for transparency in research: Corporations and academic institutions under pressure to advance public disclosure
If you Google my name along with “Monsanto,” you will find a series of allegations from 2013 that my scholarly ...
Are humans in decline and doomed for extinction? This book argues ‘yes’
Sure, there’s always the threat of global nuclear war and a massive planet-killing asteroid or cometary impact. But in his ...
Viewpoint: India has a huge opportunity on gene editing:—This isn’t about corporate-controlled GM crops. It’s about empowering farmers with healthier and more resilient plants.’
Imagine mangoes growing in the deserts of Rajasthan, wheat that thrives in extreme heat and provides higher nutrition, or rice ...
Combating global micronutrient deficiencies: Israeli scientists deploy gene editing to develop vitamin-rich lettuce
Israeli scientists successfully used CRISPR gene-editing technology to develop a nutrient-enhanced variety of lettuce, marking a breakthrough in efforts to ...
Viewpoint: ‘This is like banning life-saving medicines because some patients take overdoses’: Pakistan debates banning key agricultural chemicals that some say are misused
A proposed government ban on 12 widely used agrochemicals has triggered alarm across Pakistan's agriculture sector as experts warn it ...
Missing teeth? A drug that that spurs regrowth shows promise
Teeth ... are not bones. Although they’re made of some of the same stuff and are the hardest material in ...
The brain scans its surroundings in a steady rhythm and only turns off during deep sleep
The brain is not only concerned with where we are right now. It also explores places we haven't been yet ...
Honing in on the difference between chronological and biological age
Medical researchers in Chicago are studying the difference between a person's chronological age — how many years they've lived — ...
‘Biological rewind button’: Eye treatment on the horizon that some scientists believe literally turns back the clock on age-related health conditions
Later this year, a handful of people with a rare eye condition will receive a novel injection that is designed ...
Natural. Locally produced. Eco-friendly. Organic—Marketing buzzwords or meaningful descriptors?
[B]ased on a survey of 37 000 consumers in 40 countries, [r]espondents are generally most interested in natural, locally produced, ...
Viewpont: MACA—Make America Contagious Again. As the COVID pandemic turns 5, with Trump and RFK, Jr.’s health team in place, we’re less prepared for a crisis than ever before
What should we be doing that we’re not? First, we should be making investments, not cuts, in pandemic preparedness. The ...
Lab-grown meat, dairy, sugar and other cell-based foods set to become available to UK consumers by 2027
Meat, dairy and sugar grown in a lab could be on sale in the UK for human consumption for the ...
E-taste—What can we expect with the advent of virtual reality ‘bio-integrated gustatory interfaces’
Virtual reality can, in its own imperfect ways, transport a user into distant experiences. With a headset on, an everyday ...
