Science of the Future
US security report: China’s efforts to acheive food security seen as threat to steal crop biotechnology innovations and weaponize gene-editing tools
China’s efforts to achieve food security represent a threat to the US, according to an American federal agency focused on ...
Your household trash could be used to power jets. Here’s how
Governments around the world have challenged the airline industry to convert to completely sustainable fuel by 2050. But what is ...
India debates new ways to make biofuels as sustainability threats rise
For many countries such as India, domestic biofuel production can reduce the consumption of imported fossil fuels, which provides economic gains, in ...
Viewpoint: Onerous dual-agency regulations could dramatically slow adoption of cell-based meats and seafood
Plant-based protein and “meat-alternative” products have streamed into the marketplace in recent years. The trend has been driven in part ...
‘Electric hearing’: This alternative to cochlear implants literally shines a light on malfunctioning neurons that cause deafness
For 15 years, my team at the University of Göttingen, in Germany, has been collaborating with colleagues at the University ...
What is ‘Big Data’ in agriculture and why does it matter?
We should pay close attention. Agricultural big data is likely to have far-reaching detrimental environmental and social impacts ...
Transhumanism to humankind’s rescue? A new book claims we face a ‘make or break’ century, so let the technological remake begin
Ageing cured. Death conquered. Work ended. The human brain reverse-engineered by AI. Babies born outside of the womb. Virtual children, ...
Giving away free trees to address climate change? This company has plans to suck up CO2 with gene-edited forests
Living Carbon has developed a technique to genetically modify trees that can grow faster, and store more carbon. According to a ...
How AI ‘robot bumblebees’ might dramatically improve pollination
Is AI taking over the jobs of bumblebees? Well, not exactly. Bumblebees are typically used to pollinate plants in glasshouses all ...
Life on Earth is carbon-based — but on other planets, could life be built out on other chemical building blocks, like silicon?
When we search for life on other planets, what we usually mean is that we are looking for life as ...
If Artificial Intelligence bots reflect the biases of their creators, will some turn out to be racist?
In a new study, a robot operating on CLIP was asked to sort blocks with human faces on them and ...
Making sunshine for crops obsolete? Food of the future will be grown 18 times more efficiently with the help of artificial photosynthesis
Scientists are creating food which will become independent of sunlight by using artificial photosynthesis technology, with only about 1% of ...
‘AI muscle shirt’: Sensors used to create ‘wearable muscles’ to help those with upper limb impairments
Swiss researchers have developed “wearable muscles” that use sensors and AI to help people with upper-limb impairments use their arms ...
Natural solution for litter? Maybe worms can solve our Styrofoam problem
Don’t toss out that Styrofoam takeout container quite yet: what’s trash for you could be food for plastic-gobbling “superworms”. Researchers ...
3-D printed breast implants? This alternative to silicon regrows breast tissue and degrades without a trace
Every year, 2 million people worldwide are diagnosed with breast cancer. Most choose not to have their breasts reconstructed; in ...
Viewpoint: Is anti-biotechnology New Zealand ready to embrace gene drives to control wasps, possums and other predator pests?
The once-forbidden concept of gene editing for predator control is back on the table after two projects received New Zealand ...
Do-it-yourself oxygen: How astronauts could survive on Mars
If MOXIE works the way that scientists hope it will, future astronauts will not only make their own oxygen; they ...
Fighting climate change: How modifying this one plant gene could help crops absorb 30% more CO2
Plants already pull significant weight in removing carbon dioxide from the air, but a new study out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison ...
Genetically-modified pig hearts transplanted into two brain-dead people open door to future human trials
Doctors at NYU Langone Health have taken another step toward making pig organs available for transplant, by successfully implanting pig hearts into ...
Australia mulls use of ‘controversial’ gene drives to rid country of feral cats
Synthetic biology and genetic technology could be a safer, more humane way of curbing invasive species. Feral cat populations, for ...
‘Reviving extinct species’: Can freeze dried skin cells rescue endangered animals?
Researchers have created cloned mice from freeze dried skin cells in a world first that aims to help conservationists revive ...
With sales rising, what does the future hold for AquaBounty’s genetically modified sustainable salmon?
AquaBounty is a biotechnology company that specializes in aquaculture. They’re best known for their development of genetically engineered salmon. AquaBounty’s ...
Mmmm, kelp burgers! Would you swap meat for seaweed?
Consider, if you will, the possibility that we left our most promising resource behind in the ocean. Will you swap ...
Recipient of gene-edited pig heart transplant survived for just two months. What can we learn from what went wrong?
A human patient with heart disease received a heart from a pig that had been genetically engineered to avoid rejection ...
4th agricultural revolution: Former energy secretary and Nobel Laureate Steven Chu challenges US to adopt climate sustainable genetic engineering
GMOs could have enjoyed a better reputation had their fame rested on genetically-fortified golden rice or on eggplant and cotton ...
Gene-powered tiny robots could repair the body from the inside out
The development of human beings from fertilized eggs to an adult body is often described as a “genetic program”. Is ...
Are humans evolving and transforming by hybridizing with technology?
What may seem now to be obvious human traits will become less so as we grow progressively more integrated with ...