Health & Medicine
Are Smirnoff’s GMO-free vodka labels illegal?
Smirnoff, a vodka brand, has tried to place itself under a health halo by claiming it is not only gluten-free but ...
Oxitec, Gates Foundation aim to curb pesticide-resistant insects, malaria with new ‘self-limiting mosquito’
Oxitec [a] UK-based biotechnology company ..... [October 18] announced that it is expanding its collaboration with the Bill & Melinda ...
Cancer and genetics: Why smoking threatens more than just your lungs
Cigarettes smoking causes lung, throat and larynx cancers–which makes sense because those tissues come directly into contact with smoke and ...
How dirt could be the key to penicillin’s fight against antibiotic resistance
The next time you stroll outside after the rain, thank the soil bacteria below for the sweet, earthy smell that ...
Breaking the body’s ‘sugar code’ could refine our ability to predict, treat diseases
Key elements of arthritis, cancer, food allergies and aging are trapped within glycans, types of sugar in the human body ...
‘Hugely influential’ papers on cardiac stem cells declared ‘fraudulent’ by Harvard
An internal investigation by Harvard Medical School has determined that 31 scientific publications from the laboratory of a high-profile cardiologist ...
Understanding what happens when routine touching becomes agony
It shouldn’t hurt to put on socks, wash hands, or walk about, but for some people with damaged nerves, certain ...
Tragic tradeoff: How depression evaded evolution
Depression is an evolutionary conundrum. On the one hand, it’s the leading cause of disability worldwide; on the other, the ...
Therapy dogs spread joy—and possibly superbugs—to kids in hospitals
Therapy dogs can bring more than joy and comfort to hospitalized kids. They can also bring stubborn germs. Doctors at ...
First ever gene-edited wheat that produces high fiber flour could hit the market by 2020
[The biotech firm Calyxt] has completed the inaugural harvest of its high-fiber wheat product, the world’s first gene-edited, consumer-focused wheat ...
Viewpoint: If Nigeria wants sustainable agriculture, leaders must embrace biotech crops
World over and in various countries around the world there are laws to checkmate whatever one may think of. There ...
Redefining reproduction? Immature human eggs made from blood cells
We all know how babies are made: sperm meets egg, molecular magic happens, and an entire human comes to life ...
Rats and hepatitis E: How animal diseases jump to humans
The first known case of rat hepatitis jumping to a human patient has reopened a long-standing mystery of how the ...
Biofortified wheat variety could help stem nutrient deficiency in Africa, Asia
Nutrient deficiency in one’s diet is a common problem around the world, where different populations may lack a sufficient source ...
Spermageddon? Diving sperm counts say more about male anxiety than male fertility
There was something wrong, very wrong, with Israeli testicles. A few years ago, an army major named Hagai Levine began ...
Using your body’s internal clock to offset those bad eating habits
When we eat late at night, it disrupts our circadian rhythm. Eating within an 8-12 hour time period could reset ...
Asians finally have drugs ‘perfectly tailored’ to their genetics
For decades, much of the pipeline of medical innovation has flowed from West to East. Now a string of companies ...
Increase in autism linked to rising maternal obesity and diabetes
More and more children around the world are being born to obese mothers than ever before. In the United States, ...
Erectile dysfunction? If you carry this gene, you have a 26% increased risk
A group of scientists believe they’ve uncovered at least some of the genetic risk factors that can contribute to a ...
Simple urine test for anxiety, depression around the corner
Depression and anxiety are not always easy to detect. … Besides being time consuming and inconvenient, diagnostic criteria are rather ...
Can we afford gene therapy’s million-dollar price tags?
[4-year-old] Caspian was born with a rare, inherited eye disorder called Leber congenital amaurosis, which results in the progressive deterioration ...
Breast cancer is not ‘one size fits all’: Obesity, alcohol use, inactivity exacerbate risk
A regular mammogram isn’t enough to battle breast cancer anymore. Researchers have found that a third of breast cancer cases ...
Gender and the brain: Are there hardwired differences between men and women?
The idea that genders are different in a neurological sense is picking up considerable momentum in the hard sciences. It could have ...
70 percent of consumers confused about GMOs, but may still embrace crop biotech
To better gauge and understand consumer perceptions of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) ..... a new public survey commissioned by GMO ...
Robots helping Chinese parents raise kids. Is that a good thing?
At kindergarten, three-year-old Seven Kong has his schoolmates to play with, but at home his best friend is a kidney-shaped, ...
Viewpoint: ‘Black and white’ hazard-based safety rules boost hunger in poorest countries
To the average person, “hazard” and “risk” may seem synonymous, both implying a threat that needs to be addressed. But ...
Pioneering cancer immunotherapy researchers awarded Nobel Prize in medicine
The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was awarded Monday [Oct. 1, 2018] to cancer researchers James P. Allison and ...