Featured in Weekly Newsletter
Why polio remains surprisingly hard to eradicate
Polio retains a foothold in Pakistan—and will likely continue to do so as long as basic health services are neglected ...
Why the ‘distorted memories’ of people with dementia are so important
As those with dementia lose their sense of reality, it can be helpful to validate their stories as they tell ...
USDA reveals plans to regulate GM plants based on traits, not breeding method
USDA's Sid Abel and Doug McKalip just briefed me on the new regulatory framework that is shaping up for the ...
Farmers consider a world without glyphosate—and it’s less than ideal
"More glufosinate, maybe more paraquat." "I would have to find a different burn down chemical, likely paraquat. Would use more ...
Were there two migration routes into North America? Genetics meets archaeology
Popular accounts of the peopling of North America paint a picture of a lone long-ago trek across the Bering Land ...
Europe’s decision to reject gene edited crops signals it is losing its commitment to sustainable agriculture
At the same time as Swedish agriculture is affected by the worst drought in recent memory, the European Court of ...
Does living around violence change a child’s brain?
One study suggests that young teens who witness violence exhibit differences in the structure and function of their brains in ...
Delving into our 10 million-year relationship with booze
It was conventional wisdom that the human love affair with alcohol began 10,000 years ago, with the invention of agriculture ...
Could the common cold be cured in the next decade?
Three new approaches could give us a true cure to the common cold ...
Organic Times: New satire site takes Onion-like look at crop biotechnology activists
Agriculture is a serious topic. While farmers in the developing world struggle to save their crops from pest invasions and ...
How is India’s organic-only farming experiment in Sikkim going? Peering past the propaganda, not so sustainably.
India's farm sector is in massive flux and strife right now. After a massive ten-day strike in June, Indian farmers ...
Viewpoint: There’s danger in overselling the benefits of routine DNA sequencing
For decades the potential of stem cells to cure all disease was promised. Today’s reality is that the few worthy ...
Celiac disease: What’s behind the surge in diagnoses?
A few years ago, the book “Wheat Belly” became a hit, as it pointed to new “scientifically engineered” strains of ...
5 ways the USDA could resolve challenges surrounding ‘bioengineered’ food labels
Two years ago, President Obama signed the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Law (NBFDL) into law, requiring food manufacturers to disclose the presence ...
With glyphosate-cancer legal battles poised to escalate, what are the ramifications for agriculture if the herbicide is restricted?
Now that a jury in San Francisco has decided that exposure to Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup (glyphosate) was responsible for California groundskeeper ...
Can we learn about ourselves by studying chimpanzees? Not really.
Trying to go back to our animal roots sounds good in theory, but we can't truly find out what it ...
Viewpoint: Why saving seeds is an unproductive farming practice that locks in poverty
Farmers mired in farming systems in which saving and cleaning old seed is an economical use of their time is ...
Why autism looks so different in girls
Girls tend to be diagnosed with autism later in life than boys--often after being misdiagnosed with something else first. Why ...
Selling your DNA in our ‘brave new world’
There are instances when people choose to sell their own blood. Sperm banks transact business based on a different bodily ...
Viewpoint: Greenpeace and ‘the awful reality of anti-science activism’
The Austrian research portal "Addendum" released a bombshell video regarding the facts, figures, and positions regarding GMO foods. In this ...
We talk to our dogs. Do they understand the words we use?
Dogs know what 'get the ball' means, but do they truly understand what we say? ...
DNA testing to reunite separated families—what we learned from the grandmothers of Argentina
The idea to use DNA testing to reunite families separated at US borders due to the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” ...
Viewpoint: Eliminating pesticides from farming isn’t realistic—or desirable
In about 1980, I visited several International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) research sites in Mexico. The trip included ...
What causes cancer? Challenge is distinguishing ‘between myth and reality’
Misleading information about what can and can't cause cancer is incredibly prevalent in our society ...
Viewpoint: Nigeria must rely on science to find its way through the GMO debate
The global evolution in science has lead to the emergence and adoption of agricultural biotechnology in some parts of the ...
Viewpoint: How organic activists use intimidation and character assassination to attack GMOs
In Part 1, I described the vendetta by the Russian government's propaganda apparatus against technologies like fracking and modern genetic ...
We’re in the early stages of a genetic revolution. Should we be worried?
Many people have overestimated the effects of genetic era. The truth is that we still don't know what most of ...
