Featured in Weekly Newsletter
Viewpoint: Organic industry anti-pesticide ‘propaganda’ threatens to cripple American agriculture
Misleading half-truths and outright misstatements offer a teaching moment about “advocacy research.” ...
Podcast: GMO rice could yield affordable treatment to stem HIV in developing world
A research team developed an ingenious solution to a logistical public health problem—adding anti-HIV proteins to rice ...
Viewpoint: Hidden conflicts of interest cripple IARC’s biased glyphosate-cancer evaluation
IARC has no clear understanding of what a conflict of interest is (or doesn’t care) ...
New weapon in the fight against antibiotic resistance: Tricking bacteria ‘into killing themselves’
Sneaky molecular biology tricks bacteria into killing themselves, in place of antibiotics ...
NY Times’ Eric Lipton defends anti-biotech, anti-vax Moms Across America, which harasses scientists
Journalists like Eric Lipton need to recognize where the real danger lies ...
Using young blood to battle Alzheimer’s could be ‘an exciting new start in a frustrating field’
The idea of therapeutic benefits from 'young blood' has been around a long time ...
Plans to introduce GMO crops in disarray, legislators angry after Uganda’s president rejects GMO cultivation law for second time
The lawmakers could attempt to enact the legislation without the president’s signature ...
Regenerative Japanese stem cell treatment raises hopes for spinal cord injuries—but sparks ethical debate
The country fast-tracked the controversial therapy, opening an international rift over who should make health care decisions ...
Sensory overload: Some people genetically wired to detest bright lights, big sounds
'This world is not built for sensitive people. In fact, our world is designed perfectly for those who are detached.' ...
Viewpoint: Consumer genetic testing plagued by inaccuracies that can be misleading, or even harmful
Polygenic risk scores currently account for only a small proportion of your total genetic risk ...
Podcast: Food snobbery vs the Impossible Burger: A skeptical look at health claims about plant-based meat
"Natural food" advocates have blasted Impossible and Beyond as unhealthy. Let's look at their arguments ...
How animal memories can be harnessed in the quest to treat Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer's trials are notoriously disappointing. The discovery that rats have episodic memory means researchers can test drugs before they move ...
No ‘gay gene’: Massive study finds no specific genetic predictors for sexual behavior, preferences
The once-prevailing concept of a “gay gene” dictating sexual orientation has been put to rest in a powerhouse study ...
Education, politics, religion may have no impact on our acceptance of GMOs
A study examining the public's 2006 views on GMOs offers a glimpse into the evolution of the ongoing debate over ...
We can identify ‘bad’ genes. Why can’t we use CRISPR gene editing to get rid of them?
Gene therapy 2.0 using CRISPR to knock out harmful genes sounds is a great idea--if and when it works. But ...
Podcast: Overlooked women in science, Huntington’s disease and witch trials. The best of Genetics Unzipped
Kat Arney selects her favourite stories from the first 20 episodes of the Genetics Unzipped podcast ...
Viewpoint: False equivalency: When journalism’s quest for balance goes awry—science says climate change, vaccines have only one side
On matters of science, a well‐meaning desire to present all views equally can be a Trojan horse for damaging falsehoods ...
How ‘alien genetics’ would change our understanding of life, biology and evolution
While we await our first contact with alien life, scientists investigate possible scenarios for extraterrestrial biology ...
How our bodies protect cancer and why this could be key to better chemotherapy treatments
Tumors resist chemotherapy with help from a surprising source: nearby normal cells. Researchers are developing workarounds ...
Game of chance: What role does pure ‘bad luck’ play in developing cancer?
Two-thirds of the gene mutations that cause cancer are due to random chance, according to a new study. But environmental ...
CRISPR breathing new life into wheat and other crops—can it avoid GMO controversy?
The food industry is hopeful the new gene-editing technology can help create new crop variants without running into the activist ...
Viewpoint: Produce is sugary, GMO ‘poison’? Scientific American embraces long-debunked food safety tropes
The lies and distortions start early in this appalling Scientific American article -- and they keep going to the end ...
Are we reaching the limits of human life expectancy?
With life expectancies steadily rising in most countries, high quality care is essential for aging populations ...
Restaurants struggling to keep up with demand for Impossible Burger, alternative ‘meats’
There is no better illustration of the pent-up demand for alternatives to meat ...
Viewpoint: Plants could give us new treatments for cancer, HIV and other diseases if we had better ‘pharming’ regulations
Study suggests that proteins could be obtained from genetically engineered tobacco plants at 1/1,000th the cost of current methods ...
Viewpoint: Organic food movement ‘shoots itself in the foot’ by rejecting CRISPR gene editing
By making rejection of technology part of their 'brand,' organic food producers may put themselves at a severe competitive disadvantage ...
‘We simply don’t yet know enough’: International commission urges caution with human germline editing
Using CRISPR in a heritable way raises the stakes exponentially ...
