Featured in Weekly Newsletter
Viewpoint: Will 5G harm you? Activist groups succeed in stirring conspiracy health risk phobias, as New York State legislature prepares to debate ‘growing evidence’ of harm
Two bills were recently introduced in the New York State legislature (in the Assembly and in the Senate) to establish ...
Anti-GMO groups struggle to preserve Europe’s stringent crop gene-editing rules in post-Brexit UK
Following its political and economic divorce from the European Union, the UK has been forced to tackle an incendiary question: ...
Why some diseases confer lifelong immunity and others do not
Some diseases, like the measles, infect us once and usually grant us immunity for life. For others, like the flu, ...
Anti-GMO activists launch final effort to block AquaBounty’s fast-growing, sustainable GM salmon as US sales loom
As biotech firm AquaBounty prepares to harvest its GE AquAdvantage salmon for sale in the US, activist groups have trotted ...
Was the devout evangelical Christian who murdered 8 people in Atlanta suffering from ‘sex addiction’?
A 21-year-old white man is alleged to have entered three different spas in the greater Atlanta area on March 16 ...
Viewpoint: Skeptical of pesticides? That’s because you don’t know what life is like without them
Our greatest public health challenge isn’t chemicals -- it's ignorance and fear-mongering about them ...
About bats and COVID: Why the Wuhan ‘lab leak’ theory shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand, and other reflections one year into the crisis
Winston Churchill famously observed that in wartime the truth must be surrounded by a bodyguard of lies. Many of my ...
What is regenerative farming, and is it a solution to climate change?
At a high level, Regenerative Agriculture is a system of farming practices based on decades of science and applied research that ...
Viewpoint: Heard reports that dozens of environmental chemicals found in pregnant women pose health dangers? It’s junk science, and here’s why
Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH, of the University of California San Francisco, frequent collaborator of anti-vaccine activist and organic industry trade ...
Podcast: Save the earth—get a vasectomy? Glyphosate science vs emotion; Will Biden ban safe pesticides?
For the sake of women's rights and the environment, increasing numbers of men are getting vasectomies. How could this impact ...
Viewpoint: Consumer-focused GM and gene-edited products throw anti-GMO movement’s future into doubt
The bizarre QAnon conspiracy theory that has swept the nation and embedded itself in our political discourse is a prime ...
Viewpoint: How a God-like superintelligent AI set free in the world could destroy us
The person in the photo that sits to the left of this paragraph does not exist. It was generated using Artificial ...
Viewpoint: Biden Interior Secretary’s opposition to pesticides and GM crops puts endangered species in jeopardy
Deb Haaland’s nomination to head the Interior Department has advanced to the full Senate, but the New Mexico representative weathered ...
Can big data fight cancer by identifying those genetically predisposed to disease?
Present-day cancer care is reactive. When an individual begins to have symptoms of cancer, a tumor has typically already formed ...
Podcast: Are you a genetic superhero? Finding the hidden powers in our genes
Geneticist Dr Kat Arney explores the science behind so-called ‘genetic superheroes’, and why you might also have hidden powers within ...
Just how ‘green’ are biofuels? Why turning crops into energy might not be a worthwhile climate change solution
Biofuels are liquid fuels made from biomass (plant or animal organic materials) and used primarily in transportation, which is almost ...
Glyphosate on trial: In an ‘unequal contest’ between science and emotion, can evidence overcome pesticide-cancer fears?
Recently, I was asked to speak about the weedkiller glyphosate on Radio Colombia. As is often the case with media ...
Vasectomies are becoming a political statement
The fate of male reproductive organs is not a traditional concern in debates about the environment. But this is the ...
Decades-long battle over GMOs can teach scientists how to combat COVID conspiracies in Africa
As the second wave of COVID-19 sweeps across Africa, bringing steep increases in infections and deaths, the battle between facts and conspiracies – ...
The Anti-Vaxx Playbook: Exposing the 5-step anti-vaxx conversion program escalating the COVID pandemic. Its proponents include Barbara Loe Fisher, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Sherri Tenpenny
The Anti-Vaxx Playbook is based on in-depth analysis of speeches and presentations by leading digital anti-vaccine advocates at a meeting ...
Using CRISPR to fight antibiotic-resistant ‘superbugs’
The superbugs are winning the antibiotics wars. CRISPR could turn the tide ...
Viewpoint: Fact-checking anti-GMO activist Vandana Shiva’s ‘Poison-Free, Fossil-Free’ food lecture
The event was a missed opportunity to have the more nuanced discussion that such an important topic deserves ...
Viewpoint: Evidence or ‘junk science’—Will the Biden Administration ban essential pesticides experts say are safe?
Within days of being sworn in, President Joe Biden elevated the science adviser to the president to Cabinet rank, with ...
‘We humans might never have evolved’: Chance is the central narrative of human evolution
Prince Hamlet spent a lot of time pondering the nature of chance and probability in William Shakespeare’s tragedy. In the ...
Cloned ferret Elizabeth Ann and the future of conservation: The promises and perils of biotechnology
From Borneo to Britain, it’s the scientific breakthrough that captured the world’s attention. No, not the Perseverance rover landing on ...
Anxious about getting a COVID vaccine because you don’t know what’s in it? We know a lot more about it than the safety of hot dogs
“So, you’ve been eatin’ hot dogs and chicken nuggets all your life and you don’t want the vaccine ‘cuz you ...
8 advocacy organizations and websites spreading misinformation about technology, chemicals, food and environmental risk
Are you worried about the environment and the 'proliferation of unnecessary chemicals'? Concerned that CRISPR and other forms of genetic ...
