Health & Medicine
Through the study and use of genetics, we can identify measures that could lead to the improvement of human health and wellness. These methods and procedures aim to prevent years of chronic disease and thousands of dollars in health care costs, and provide families and communities with knowledge of how to live healthier.
Below is the complete archive of related articles sorted by date.
Infographic: ‘There is no clear evidence that differences between organic and conventionally grown foods have any bearing on health’
Yes, there are some differences between organically grown food and food produced using conventional methods, said Siv Kjølsrud Bøhn at ...
Obesity and genetics: Researchers have found 14 genes that cause weight gain and three that help prevent it, opening door to new treatments
Obesity has become an epidemic, driven in large part by high-calorie diets laden with sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. Increasingly ...
mRNA COVID vaccines were decades in the making
In the 1990s and for most of the 2000s, nearly every vaccine company that considered working on mRNA opted to ...
The dog nose knows: Bio-detection dogs can save your life. Here’s how
Stories of life-saving dogs who use their power of smell to rescue humans are legendary. One of the most famous ...
Gene editing has ‘limitless potential’ to reduce malnutrition, says global food expert
Gene editing is a tool with unlimited potential to help reduce malnutrition globally, said Dr. Lawrence Haddad, executive director of ...
COVID has cut life expectancy the most since World War II — and men have been hit the hardest, losing 2 years on average
The COVID-19 pandemic reduced life expectancy in 2020 by the largest amount since World War Two, according to a study ...
Breakthrough COVID cases are uncommon — but are they always mild? Health experts say no
Public health experts continue to believe that breakthrough infections are relatively uncommon, and rarely result in severe illness or hospitalizations ...
Infographics: Key charts illustrate split between vaccinated and unvaccinated America
Three in 10 American adults remain unvaccinated, according to the latest survey from the KFF. But they’re not a monolith ...
Viewpoint: Should genetically edited food be on your dinner plate? A synthetic biologist and a sociologist say ‘yes’
Nicola Patron: Oil from soybeans gene-edited to produce a “high oleic” oil with no trans fats and less saturated fat is already ...
Viewpoint: Golden Rice approval fallout — ‘Greenpeace has transitioned from an organization concerned about the environment to one that fights against improved food security and reduced childhood blindness’
In late July 2021, the Philippines became the first country on the planet to approve Golden Rice for production and human ...
GLP Podcast: Abortion muddies COVID vaccine debate; Coffee is heart healthy again; Genetics of homosexuality
If women have a right to abortion, does everyone else have a right to refuse a COVID shot? The "my ...
Gene editing: Powerful tool for managing climate change
Growing up, my family spent summer weekends on the beaches of New York State. Riding in a car packed with ...
‘Fatally, tragically flawed’: Why research and recommendations addressing the obesity epidemic are so wrong
For nearly a century, obesity research has been predicated on the belief that the cause of the disorder “is an ...
Some people appear genetically immune to catching COVID — but scientists are still not sure why
[Molecular biology professor Mayana] Zatz’s work is part of a growing effort to identify factors that may make people resistant ...
Viewpoint: Did men evolve to be better athletes than women? Here’s a rethink
As the Summer Olympics gear up to kick off in Tokyo, Japan, on July 23—delayed a year thanks to the ...
Viewpoint: Meta-review of 266 studies concludes weedkiller paraquat doesn’t cause Parkinson’s disease
In order to examine the extent to which a consensus exists in the scientific community regarding the relationship between paraquat ...
‘It’s all in your head’: Do thinking and feeling really happen in the brain?
Someone’s probably told you before that something you thought, felt or feared was ‘all in your mind’. I’m here to ...
Each half portion of beef you swap out could add 48 minutes to your life — and cut your meal’s carbon footprint by one third
Substituting just half a portion of beef with a handful of nuts, vegetables, fruits, and seafood could buy you 48 ...
We will all likely get COVID. How can we adapt to living with the virus?
We don’t know exactly how the four common-cold coronaviruses first came to infect humans, but some have speculated that at ...
Harnessing biotechnology: Faced with 720 million undernourished people around the world, UN embraces genetic engineering and precision agriculture
In 2020, between 720 and 811 million people were undernourished globally, around 161 million more people than in 2019. Conflict ...
Ghana’s first genetically modified crop – pod borer resistant cowpea — is poised to address widespread protein deficiency challenges
A Senior Research Scientist with the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research ...
Solving the problem of death: 150 seems to be an outer age limit, and here’s why
In Silicon Valley, immortality is sometimes elevated to the status of a corporeal goal. Plenty of big names in big ...
Wide disagreement among religious groups about vaccine mandates
Since the start of the pandemic, there has been a standoff between personal freedoms and bodily integrity on one side ...
Instituted to protect our food, the ‘precautionary principle’ often perpetuates fears and does more harm than good
The origin of the term “better safe than sorry” goes back to a book written in 1837, Rory O’More. The rest ...
Coffee and heart disease: Yet another study funds multiple cups a day reduces death risks
Drinking up to three cups of coffee a day may protect your heart, a new study finds. Among people with ...
Viewpoint: Case closed — Ivermectin doesn’t work for treating or preventing COVID despite social media and rightwing media claims
Ivermectin doesn’t work. It doesn’t prevent Covid-19, nor does it treat it. Unfortunately, the official government response to this misinformation ...
Organic farming offers some nutritional advantages — but these benefits are limited. Here’s a science review
Stimulated by the distribution trade and various favorable promotional messages, the demand for organic food continues to grow steadily, despite ...
