Science Controversies
Viewpoint: Just one COVID-19 vaccine is not enough to win the war. We need an army
Scientists have created more than 70 vaccine candidates so far. “If we end up with two, three, or four vaccines, ...
How COVID-19 works to destroy our sense of smell
[A]nosmia [loss of sense of smell] seen with COVID-19 is present in 30–98 percent of infected people seen in hospitals, ...
$10.9 billion Monsanto Roundup settlement does not automatically shield Bayer from ‘flood’ of new glyphosate-cancer lawsuits
[Bayer] on [June 24] agreed to pay as much as $10.9 billion to end the litigation by U.S. Roundup users ...
How widespread is the pandemic? Proposed global blood bank could provide missing answers
Michael Mina is out for blood—millions of samples, which a nascent effort dubbed the Global Immunological Observatory (GIO), would monitor ...
Legal fight over Bayer’s drift-prone dicamba weedkiller ends in $400 million settlement
Bayer will pay up to $400 million to resolve the multi-district litigation pending in the U.S. District Court for the ...
India has access to yield-boosting GMO crops, so why aren’t farmers allowed to grow them?
[India's] Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee .... had first approved GM food crop Bt brinjal in 2009 after a nine-year-long trial ...
Gene editing could help safeguard $400 million worth of wheat during coldest winter months
Up to $400 million worth of grain is lost during winter in Western Australia each year when cold conditions freeze ...
We’ve successfully flattened the curve. Now get ready for an ‘agonizing’ COVID-19 plateau
As the summer gets into full swing and much of the country lifts its restrictions on distancing… it’s important to ...
Despite $10.9 billion US glyphosate-cancer settlement, Australia officially maintains weedkiller ‘perfectly safe’
The pesticides giant Bayer agreed .... to pay up to US$10.9bn (A$15.8bn) to settle about 95,000 cases claiming [the glyphosate-based ...
Teaching AI to diagnose COVID-19 by analyzing CT scans
In China, CT scans are already used as a COVID-19 diagnostic tool when a patient arrives at a healthcare setting ...
Is speed more important than safety? Operation Warp Speed triggers public fears regulators are cutting coronavirus vaccine corners
"I'm a bit concerned to see there's a fair amount of skepticism in the American public about whether or not ...
Viewpoint: Court order blocking California glyphosate cancer label a huge win against ‘junk science’
Federal Judge William Shubb ruled that due to insufficient evidence, California cannot require glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup to be labeled as ...
Viewpoint: We still don’t know how deadly COVID-19 is—and why it doesn’t really matter
We’ve learned an incredible amount about the novel coronavirus these last few months… But we’re still struggling to answer what ...
Disease-fighting GMO mosquitoes are coming. Was EPA too quick to approve them?
[In May], the US Environmental Protection Agency approved the release of genetically modified mosquitoes. Under a 2-year Experimental Use Permit, ...
5 percent of COVID-19 survivors have super strength ‘neutralizing antibodies’ crucial for developing a vaccine
The discovery of antibodies that block the most infectious elements of the coronavirus is helping Bay Area scientists unlock the ...
Viewpoint: Bayer caved to anti-science trial lawyers by settling glyphosate-cancer lawsuits
Bayer, the German pesticide and seed company, has agreed to establish a $10 billion fund that aims to resolve current ...
On the front lines fighting the coronavirus: I took a COVID-19 contact tracing course
In the Before Times, there were only about 2,200 contact tracers for the whole US, according to the Association of ...
The ’airborne virus scientist’ public health officials turn to to assess dangers from COVID-19 in the air
[Aerosol scientist Dr. Linsey Marr’s] scientific curiosity and her multidisciplinary background have made her one of the world’s leading scientists ...
Infographic: No more shots? Next-gen vaccine ‘sheets’ melt on the tongue
Two issues influencing the accessibility of many vaccines are their needs for constant refrigeration from production until use and for ...
Bayer settles estimated 95,000 glyphosate weedkiller-cancer lawsuits with 25 firms for more than $10 billion, admits no wrongdoing
Bayer, the world's largest seed and pesticide maker, has agreed to pay more than $10 billion to settle tens of ...
Mosquito spit might be a universal vaccine ‘Holy Grail’ – preventing everything from malaria to Zika
Her idea revolved around mosquito spit. Building on the work of colleagues and other scientists, [Jessica] Manning, a clinical researcher ...
$8-10 billion settlement in thousands of Bayer glyphosate lawsuits ‘imminent’
Biotech giant Bayer is expected to settle thousands of lawsuits alleging its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer the week of June ...
Bayer, BASF, Corteva expected to fight court-imposed ban on dicamba weedkillers
Dicamba has been the subject of considerable outrage since the release of dicamba-resistant seeds in 2016; the herbicide has a ...
COVID-19 recoverers appear to rapidly lose antibodies, leaving them vulnerable to reinfection within months
Infections caused by coronavirus cousins such as SARS and MERS result in antibodies that remain in the body for nearly ...
China approves imports of two GMO soy varieties, green lighting production in Argentina
China has approved the import of two new genetically modified (GM) soybean varieties, including one developed by local firm Beijing ...
Have we done enough to prevent a second wave of COVID-19 infections?
As we are seeing the beginning of the end of the first wave of COVID-19, the burning question is – ...
Infographic: Animal origins or lab leak? Tracing coronavirus back to the source
Since the pandemic began, the question of where the coronavirus came from has been one of the biggest puzzles. It ...
