Medical Regs & Ethics
What happens if a nurse spreads fake COVID facts — and what counts as misinformation?
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many healthcare membership associations and organizations took a stance on the spread of misinformation by licensed ...
Viewpoint: Why I voted ‘no’ on the recently-approved ALS drug Relyvrio
Unsubstantiated claims of efficacy have impeded therapeutics development for other diseases too. Over 30 years ago, the parents of a ...
Viewpoint: Ideology not science — Here’s why NBC News’ factually inaccurate reporting on the ‘dangers’ of the weedkiller glyphosate sets a dangerous precedent
What happens when an online information resource leans into clickbait? It’s annoying but generally harmless entertainment. When it’s a resource ...
Viewpoint: Social justice movement challenges basic science — ‘Restricting research on the science of human nature won’t cure injustice or prejudice’
Does nature shape who we are? Since the advent of cognitive science, neuroscience and behavioral genetics, this age-old question has ...
Viewpoint: BRAIN 2.0 — US government pouring billions into understanding the genetics of the human brain. Rightwing Federalist society raises ‘dangerous’ spectre of government mind control
The U.S. government is pouring billions of dollars into understanding genetics and the human brain, and most consequentially, how to ...
Podcast: CRISPR Cas13 gene editing; Eye transplants; Sex might drive our athletic and artistic ability
A new gene-editing technique may be safer and more reliable than CRISPR-Cas9, according to a recent study ...
‘Blood on your hands’: WHO says richer nations cannot back away from helping the developing world still coping with COVID
If rich nations think the pandemic is over, they should help lower-income countries reach that point too, a senior World ...
Part II: Science and the courts clash over different views about human life and on what limits should be set on human embryo laboratory research
The US Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision striking down the constitutional right to abortion (which has sparked a renewed debate over ...
Fertility clinic is unavailable or too expensive? One woman’s experience using a ‘global fertility courier’ to find affordable, quality reproductive care
Like me, my eggs were flying economy class. We—my dog Stewie and I—were in seat 8D, while 12 of my ...
Part I: 14 days or 28 — What should the standard be for research on lab-grown human embryos?
For four decades, scientists world-over have self-imposed a moratorium on doing laboratory research on human embryos 14 days post-fertilization. It's ...
Test your embryo for disease? DNA scan that ‘ranks’ embryos based on heart disease and mental illness risks raises ethical questions
“She has her mother’s eyes,” begins the advertisement, “but will she also inherit her breast cancer diagnosis?” The smooth voice ...
Ocean organisms form the basis for numerous innovative drugs including COVID treatment remdesivir. Should the seas’ genetic resources be commercialized?
Genetic material from high seas organisms and the digital data from sequencing their genomes could be used to develop new ...
Podcast: Biden’s pro-biotech executive order; Vaccine mandates backfire; Courts v junk science
President Biden just signed an executive order promising substantial investment in the "bioeconomy." What impact will the proposal have on ...
With the first synthetic embryo nearing reality, what are the ethical ramifications?
In what’s reported as a world-first achievement, biologists have grown mouse embryo models in the lab without the need for ...
Viewpoint: In the post Roe v Wade world, what changes should a biology textbook writer make to address the medical repercussions of Dobbs?
I’ve published 38 editions of several college life science textbooks since 1982. All have covered human prenatal development and assisted ...
Could artificial intelligence (AI) lead to accidental demise of humans?
It seems only a matter of time before computers become smarter than people. This is one prediction we can be ...
Podcast: Exercise builds gut health; US blocking COVID origins investigation? ‘Natural’ food is a scam
Keeping the microbes living in your gut healthy is important to your overall well-being, and recent research suggests that regular ...
Investing in genomic research can boost poor countries’ access to rich science
Africa holds genetic diversity unrivaled for any population in the world but it is on the back foot in benefitting from ...
Here’s why researchers believe COVID shot mandates are fueling a backlash, undermining vaccine education
Research going back many years has shown that vaccine mandates tend to backfire. Forcing people to get shots they don't ...
Study: History of CRISPR gene editing in food
The development of a method for genome editing based on CRISPR–Cas9 technology was awarded The Nobel Prize in Chemistry in ...
On the edge of science and ethics: This startup wants to create human embryos to harvest tissue for transplants
In a search for novel forms of longevity medicine, a biotech company based in Israel says it intends to create ...
Does de-extinction fervor distract from saving endangered species?
Since the 1990s, the endless searches for the marsupial in the wilds of Tasmania and Victoria have run alongside another ...
Long COVID: As many as 30% of victims suffer ongoing health issues
Thousands of long Covid patients across the globe are urging their governments to provide more help for the growing number ...
Back from the dead? How OrganEx technology revived pigs dead for one hour, and why it could revolutionize transplants
Transplant medicine could take a giant leap forward if donor organs could soak up oxygen for longer and decay delayed ...
A legal defense grounded in genetics: Is DNA testing the magic wand to winning (or losing) a negligence case?
Among the four elements required to establish liability for the tort of negligence is causation. In addition to proving that ...
Locked-in syndrome: We don’t know much about the mental health of people who are fully paralyzed yet conscious
In 1993, Julio Lopes was sipping a coffee at a bar when he had a stroke. He fell into a ...
Podcast: Industry funding doesn’t corrupt science; COVID lab leak refuted? Dicamba controversy revisited
Should agricultural scientists take research funding from corporations? A pair of studies suggests that a 'lab-leak' origin for SARS-CoV-2 looks ...
