Featured in Weekly Newsletter
Activists and ‘celebrity figures’ are turning public opinion against crop biotechnology in Mexico
On New Year’s Eve 2020, the Mexican government announced its plan to ban GMO corn and phase out GMO corn ...
Viewpoint: Why the federal government should subsidize high risk, early stage research into alternative meats and other proteins
A record-breaking $3.1 billion was invested in alternative proteins — plant-based and cultivated meat — in 2020. However, we and other ...
Lab-grown meat promises to cut water and land use by more than 96%. Why are US regulators dragging their feet in approving this ‘sustainable innovation’?
Future Meat Technologies announced [recently] that it can now produce 1,100 pounds of meat daily from animal cells grown in industrial-scale ...
‘Grizzled level-headedness’: As we age, we have fewer but more satisfying social contacts and are emotionally happier
When we are young, our skills tend to improve with age and experience. But once we are well into adulthood, ...
How Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and anti-vaxxers misrepresent the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) to scare people about COVID shot ‘dangers’
Convincing a parent that vaccines won't harm their children can be a near-possible task these days. As pediatric infectious disease ...
Viewpoint: Warning to Sri Lanka — Tunnel vision embrace of an organic-only farming model sets country up for economic and environmental backwardness
An Open Letter to Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa: Your recent endeavor to ‘rush’ the country from conventional farming to ...
Viewpoint: Here’s why activist environmentalists’ promotion of a ‘binary organic vs conventional/good vs evil dichotomy’ is bad for sustainable agriculture
Due to successful fear-based marketing campaigns, the demand for organic food in many affluent countries is rising far faster than ...
GLP Podcast: ‘It’s banned in Europe’ fallacy, debunked; Conversation’s bad glyphosate article; Fighting pregnancy stress
If a pesticide is banned in Europe, does that make it dangerous? Nope. Typically an excellent source of science commentary, ...
Organic pesticide copper sulfate—unlike glyphosate—is a carcinogen, kills beneficial insects, decimates soil, pollutes water. It also works. Here are political and science reasons why regulators give it a free pass
Europe is currently in a frenzy trying to drum up enough support to dramatically rollback approvals of targeted synthetic pesticides, ...
Is Prevagen the ‘silver bullet’ supplement to treat Alzheimer’s disease? Distinguishing hope from hype in the battle against cognitive decline
The avalanche of TV ads for Prevagen that coincided with my reaching Medicare age has inspired me to investigate what’s ...
Viewpoint: This 11,000 page European Union report should end the debate over the ‘dangers’ posed by glyphosate weedkiller
Glyphosate is a weed killer widely used by the agricultural industry and also available for consumer use in products like ...
How did Taiwan go from fortress impregnable to Asia’s COVID hotspot?
In September 2020, I arrived in Taiwan on a flight from New York. I had read much about the border ...
Bereitschaftspotential effect: Brain-to-computer interfaces are all the rage, but legal issues about how and why we act complicate risks
As I’ve written recently, a spate of devices enabling people with quadriplegia to move their extremities have been approved by ...
Organic vs. conventional farming: Which has lower environmental impacts?
A Swedish Food Agency report compared environmental impacts of conventional farming against those of organic farming ...
Viewpoint: Eric Lander is the first geneticist to direct US science policy. Here’s how he can harness the biotechnology revolution
Eric Lander—geneticist, mathematician, president and founding director of the Broad Institute— took the helm on June 2 as director of the Office of Science and ...
Saving our soil: 4 new microbial technologies that keep soil healthy and us fed
Soil microbes are hard to see and understand, yet we know that they have a significant impact on plant health, ...
Pregnant women’s brains show troubling signs of stress – but feeling strong social support can break those patterns
Even before the pandemic, there was plenty for expectant mothers to worry about. Pregnant women must withstand a barrage of ...
GLP Podcast: ‘Lefty’ anti-GMO groups embrace lab-leak story; Organic nutrition myths; CRISPR treats crippling disease
Anti-GMO groups have hitched their wagons to the COVID lab-leak hypothesis to keep their flagging agenda alive. Organic produce is ...
What our embattled world looks like through the ‘eyes’ of SARS-CoV-2
I’m tired of writing about COVID from a geneticist’s point of view, so I thought I’d let a virus speak ...
How genetic engineering will help make fishing more sustainable
After an arduous process that took more than 25 years from time of conception to commercialization, the GMO salmon was ...
Rafting events: How did animals disperse around the world to seed evolution? Here is one possible scenario
Humans evolved in Africa, along with chimpanzees, gorillas and monkeys. But primates themselves appear to have evolved elsewhere – likely ...
Another study finds glyphosate herbicide kills tumor cells. Is the much-maligned weedkiller a cancer fighter?
If Roundup or one of its ingredients turns out to be an effective cancer treatment, it would be a stunning ...
Glyphosate can cure cancer? Yes, some research ‘shows’ that — but what does it mean? And what does it say about Roundup doomsday claims?
A demonstration of the fine art of cherrypicking ...
Viewpoint: What’s the future of individualized medicine when you factor in ‘racial’ and genetic differences?
COVID-19 has put race-based health disparities on full display, but such inequities extend far deeper than the current pandemic. An ...
Not 23andMe but ‘3-million-and-me’: How to maximize dietary probiotics to improve our microbiomes and overall health
We may think of ourselves as ’23 and me’ based on our pair of chromosomes, but really, we are closer ...
GLP Podcast: Cell-based breast milk; Joe Mercola’s awful COVID book; More mRNA drugs coming soon?
Cell-based breast milk might offer mothers and babies a better alternative to expensive formula in the coming years. Alternative health ...
Viewpoint: Can agroecology cut European food imports and grow more on less land all while cutting greenhouse gas emissions? It would take a lot
Europe currently is heavily dependent on imports for food products as well as animal feed, particularly soy and corn. But ...
