Science Controversies
Here are all the ways CRISPR gene editing is transforming Africa’s staple crops—and there’s a lot more innovation to come
CRISPR gene editing is already reshaping Africa’s most important food crops, from disease-resistant bananas to less toxic cassava, and a ...
Viewpoint: Even lousy scientific articles can shield authors when they hype dubious health claims and products
Peer review in reputable journals gives scientific claims an authority that commercial speech rarely enjoys. But what happens when scientists ...
How U.S. teamed with Russia to block global human AI weapons oversight
When diplomats gathered in Geneva to finalize the first international rules on lethal autonomous weapons, the United States and Russia ...
Viewpoint: After firing the entire National Science Board, Trump reshapes funding initiatives. Here’s the good and the bad.
The National Science Foundation is steering most of its money away from grants for individual researchers’ best ideas and toward ...
What constitutes a measles death? RFK, Jr. maneuvers to restrict definition to make pandemic seem less dire
The CDC's decision to scrub two Pennsylvania measles deaths from its public tally, replacing them with an asterisk, has experts ...
Facts & Fallacies podcast: America’s health care system is broken. A doctor explains how to fix it
America's health care system is broken. The price of insurance continues to accelerate while access to quality care continues to ...
The exploding controversy over AI’s built-in survival drive
In controlled safety tests described earlier this year, researchers asked AI models to solve a series of simple math problems ...
Trump administration clears the way for speedy approvals of once-restricted tobacco vapes and pouches
The Trump administration wants to make it easier for flavored vapes, nicotine pouches and other newer tobacco products to reach ...
80% of Americans take (mostly useless) supplements for their health
Nearly eight in ten Americans take at least one pill, powder or gummy in the name of good health, as ...
Viewpoint: Activist environmental NGOs are turning from public funding to activist billionaires to support their campaigns. It won’t end well.
Environmental-Health Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are going through a difficult period with the decline in public funding, the increase in scrutiny ...
Viewpoint: 4 very real AI doomsday scenarios
An engineered pandemic, a nuclear war, a planet paved over with paper clip factories: AI researchers have floated plenty of ...
Viewpoint: Why do online health lies outlive the evidence that debunks them? Read “Everyone Else Is Lying to You”
Medical misinformation has a peculiar advantage: it can outlive the evidence that disproves it, especially when yesterday’s contrarians become today’s ...
‘We are dangerously addicted to antidepressants’: Should we heed RFK Jr.’s sobering warning?
Drugs for treating depression are among the most prescribed category of medications in the U.S. – 1 in 6 American adults ...
Viewpoint: Does IQ really measure intelligence? BBC gets it wrong.
A blistering rebuttal to the BBC's recent case against IQ testing argues the corporation got nearly every point wrong, as ...
AI sparks a bioweapons race
Artificial intelligence chatbots can’t yet hand a bad actor a ready-made plague, but the queries Anthropic flagged this month suggest ...
Trump says he’ll require drugmakers to end multiple vaccine doses, reviving discredited autism claims
President Trump said that he'll “demand” drugmakers break vaccines into five smaller doses spaced six months apart, claiming the change ...
Slowdown AI development? China acknowledges serious risks but sees warnings as U.S. ploy to control the technology
For years, Silicon Valley's most powerful voices insisted the US was locked in an unwinnable AI arms race with China ...
Viewpoint: Study links childhood vaccination to autism!!! Here’s how anti-vaxxers twist evidence to corrupt science
A viral post on X claims the “largest vaccinated vs. unvaccinated birth cohort study ever” found vaccinated children far sicker ...
Viewpoint: How to ecologically damage America’s forests: Ban glyphosate
A recent Mother Jones’ investigation ran under the headline “We Are Bombarding America’s Forests With Roundup.” The authors claim that ...
From Malaysia to the world: A pioneering science communicator reimagines global science communication for a digital age
By 2024, I was exhausted. For more than a decade, I had carried The Petri Dish through the realities of ...
Vitamin D, omega-3 fish oil and glucosamine supplements could cause brain damage
Vitamin D, omega-3 fish oil and glucosamine — three of the most popular supplements among older Americans — may do ...
Child-monitoring apps: When the cure is worse than the harm—and how the technology could be tweaked
Millions of American parents have turned to apps like Bark that scan their kids' texts, photos and chats for signs ...
Viewpoint: Why are the less intelligent more likely to be conservative—and smarter people more socially liberal?
Smarter people tend to be more socially liberal — less racist, less homophobic, less nationalistic, more supportive of free speech ...
The heated debate over trans athletes in the WNBA
Three-time Olympic gold medalist Nancy Hogshead-Makar has created a petition demanding that the WNBA spell out that its players must ...
Viewpoint: Women, depression and empathy: Explaining the gender gap in views about child-murderer Lindsay Clancy
Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy's trial — which ended in a deadlocked jury over the deaths of her three children while ...
Doomsday cult? Why we should be suspicious of end-of-the-world claims
Marc Andreessen is done listening to AI's doomsayers, and he wants everyone else to stop too. The venture capitalist behind ...
Viewpoint: Childhood deaths in dispute: Why the CDC vs Pennsylvania conflict over measles vaccines matters
If you’ve been following the dispute between Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy ...
