Featured in Weekly Newsletter
About “genetic losers” and “mad genes”: My encounter with one of the most brilliant and controversial scientists of the genome era
The recent death of James Watson, co-discoverer with Francis Crick of the three-dimensional structure of the genetic material DNA, brought ...
Power, culture, and identity: How did milk get caught in the crosshairs of the culture wars
Milk is one of the most familiar things in the world – comforting, wholesome, ordinary. But beneath this common perception ...
Viewpoint—Toxic Narratives: The lucrative environmentalist–tort lawyer-media disinformation network driving drug and chemical scares
Is aspartame, used in thousands of products, from Diet Coke to Trident Gum to Log Cabin Sugar-Free Syrup, potentially cancer-causing? ...
mRNA is ground zero in RFK, Jr. and MAHA’s war on expertise
We messaged each other with just three words: "Did you see?" We both knew what the other meant. After years ...
Viewpoint: Race and sex: The danger of oversimplifying the spectrum of human differences
In 2021, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz compared critical race theory — an academic subfield that examines the role of racism in American institutions, laws, ...
With global temperatures rising, it’s time to take a fresh look at geoengineering. Is it feasible and affordable?
In July 2012, a renegade American businessman, Russ George, took a ship off the coast of British Columbia and dumped ...
Can you really become addicted to food?
People often joke that their favorite snack is “like crack” or call themselves “chocoholics” in jest. But can someone really ...
The emerging state-by-state patchwork of food additive bans raises concerns among food regulatory scientists
A coalition of major food companies and industry associations launched Americans for Ingredient Transparency (AFIT), aimed at stopping the growing trend ...
Viewpoint: Newly-formed non-profits are the ‘dark money’ foundation of the activist environmental movement
Time was that non-profits were funded by their membership dues or individual donations, loose change drums at airports and clipboard ...
Viewpoint: Do chemicals in common plastics really kill
Three hundred fifty thousand of you are predicted to die every year from heart disease caused by exposure to plastics, ...
Is Vitamin D the anti-aging pill we’ve been looking for?
Vitamin D supplements could help protect the caps on our chromosomes that slow ageing, sparking hopes the sunshine vitamin might ...
California takes on the thorny challenge to define what constitutes a nutritious lunch for school children. How is it doing?
California has once again stepped to the front of the regulatory line—this time in the school cafeteria. While Washington dithers ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr. and vaccines — here’s what a prominent physician says he gets dangerously wrong
In the months since he began serving as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy ...
Viewpoint: Europe’s precautionary principle guiding science regulations is broken. Here’s what needs to be done
Precaution is common sense. We don’t run blindly into a busy street or touch a hot flame. When a toddler ...
Treating Huntington’s
During my neurology rotation as a medical student, one of my first patients was in the middle stage of much-dreaded ...
Happy 43rd birthday, GMO insulin. FDA approval in 1982 took 5 months. How many years would it take now?
This is the 43rd anniversary of one of biotechnology’s most significant milestones — the approval by the Food and Drug ...
Viewpoint: Environmentalists claim farmers can forego chemicals and genetically engineered crops and grow bumper crops with less environmental impact. If only farming was that easy
At the end of the 20th century, the United Nations (UN) launched the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs were a list of ...
Why scare stories about crop chemicals outlive the science
For years, glyphosate has been the world’s most litigated molecule. The herbicide, first brought to market in 1974 under the ...
Human differences: The concept of ‘race’ is infused with historical prejudice but ‘genetic populations’ are real. What’s the difference?
In the recent flurry of executive orders from President Donald Trump, one warned of “a distorted narrative” about race “driven ...
The science behind a restful night’s sleep
We’ve all experienced this: You’re in the middle of a lovely dream. Perhaps you’re flying. As you’re soaring through the ...
RFK, Jr.’s bungled science on thimerosal and vaccines
Mercury, the element, is no longer used in thermometers, but it remains at the center of a decades-long debate over ...
Viewpoint: Frost season is nearing in Florida’s citrus-growing region. Here’s how backward science at the EPA has closed down a protective solution
“That morning I squeezed every orange and it felt like a wet sponge – I knew I lost the whole ...
‘Deficient, Unreliable, Corrupted’: Independent EU food science watchdog agency eviscerates junk studies weaponized by NGO activists to manufacture microplastic crisis and litigation
Not a day goes by where some study isn’t published on some micro or nanoplastic found in the environment, humans ...
Viewpoint: Beyond Plastics: Here’s how ‘dark money’ funds activist environmental causes and keeps money flowing to tort lawyers
Tucked away in the quaint folds of Vermont’s Bennington College, a tiny liberal arts school with fewer students than a ...
Viewpoint: Organic fantasies—Why rejecting industrial agriculture for regenerative farming would be a big mistake for food security and sustainability
Last year, Scientific American published a short but ominous article titled “Only 60 Years Left of Farming if Soil Degradation ...
The EU passes landmark legislation to curb plastic nurdles threatening ocean ecosystems. It’s not enough. Genetically engineered bacteria could help
Spain’s northern coast has been fighting a months-long assault from a ‘white tide’ of plastic pellets dumped by a Dutch-registered ship ...
Farming in poorer countries suffers from poor weather forecasting. AI is poised to change that
For farmers, every planting decision carries risks, and many of those risks are increasing with climate change. One of the ...
