Food & Agriculture Features
American Medical Association comes out against GMO labeling
On June 19, the American Medical Association adopted a policy statement that says “there is no scientific justification for special ...
Genetic engineering turns mosquitoes into disease fighting weapons
Good intentions often go bad. Questions over the potential danger from spraying DDT to control malaria and other insect-borne scourges ...
Free trade and GM crops: Price sensitive European consumers, blocked from buying most GM products, are willing to buy innovative foods
While the political opposition to biotech crops in the European Union is well entrenched, consumers are willing to take a ...
Nobel biologist: Zero evidence that crop biotechnology is harmful; GM safer than conventional food
Sir Richard Roberts, a British biologist, joined a long and growing list of Nobel laureates, saying that he believes much ...
Food security: Socio-econonomic and environmental impacts of crop biotechnology
The economic impact of crop biotechnology continued to grow, according to a recently released report. The growth was particularly dramatic ...
Soviet entrepreneur holds fate of GM salmon
If Americans ever eat genetically engineered fast-growing salmon, it might be because of a Soviet biologist turned oligarch turned government ...
As gene mapping nears $1,000, will it improve our health?
The cost of mapping a person's full genetic profile has been dropping quickly. Now, doctors are struggling with a new ...
Risk and DNA: In search of the money gene
What makes someone want to start a business? That was what the young economist Philipp Koellinger was trying to figure ...
Genes & obesity
The latest Genomics & Health Impact Update has a primer on genetic links to obesity—a must read. It also links ...
Biotech Bogeymen
If you’re worried about pesticides, then the San Francisco Chronicle has a sweeping indictment of genetically engineered (GE) crops to ...
Will Gattaca come true?
Noninvasive, early fetal tests for sex, paternity and chromosomal conditions will change pregnancy dramatically- and raise tricky ethical questions.A scientist ...
Suicides in India over GM crops: How false anti-GM story took root
That indebted Indian farmers have taken their own lives in horribly high numbers is true. But it’s a complex story ...
Combating depression with green care therapies
One example of a promising but under-studied therapy is "green care" or "care farming," a type of intervention that uses ...
GM crops + herbicides = Super-Superweeds?
Herbicide-resistant superweeds threaten to overgrow U.S. fields, so agriculture companies have genetically engineered a new generation of plants to withstand ...
The perfect milk machine: How big data transformed the dairy industry
Dairy scientists are the Gregor Mendels of the genomics age, developing new methods for understanding the link between genes and ...
Your genes decide how old you get
If your grandparents were able to celebrate their 90th birthday there’s a good chance you might do the same. Our ...