Science Controversies
Population health vs personalized medicine? Coronavirus pandemic highlights the importance of multiple approaches
“If we are to advance health care in the United States, where is the dollar best spent? Is it spent ...
Polio vaccines are inexpensive, easily available, already approved—and they might work wonders against COVID-19
Recent reports indicate that COVID-19 may result in suppressed innate immune responses. Therefore, stimulation by live attenuated vaccines [such as ...
Federal court backs EPA order allowing farmers to use banned dicamba weedkillers until July 31
EPA has defended its decision to allow farmers to continue to use three vacated dicamba herbicides -- XtendiMax, FeXapan and ...
California can’t force Bayer to put Prop. 65 cancer warning on Roundup glyphosate weedkiller, judge rules
A federal judge in Sacramento on [June 22] ruled for Bayer and blocked the state from requiring that any company ...
COVID-19 vaccine development efforts focusing on protecting the elderly
Older adults are especially susceptible to infection by the virus, and at higher risk of falling critically ill and dying, ...
Why space travel demands a well-stocked cosmic pharmacy
In space, no one can hear you sneeze. But if an astronaut does catch the flu, it can be a ...
Plaintiffs attorneys in glyphosate-cancer suit plead guilty to $200 million extortion plot
According to the [Virginia] Department of Justice, 38-year-old Timothy Litzenburg, of Charlottesville, and 41-year-old Daniel Kincheloe, of Glen Allen, each ...
European Greens rebuff pro-CRISPR party faction, allege gene-edited crops ‘doomed to fail’
Martin Häusling, spokesman for agricultural policy of the Greens / EFA in the European Parliament, and Harald Ebner, spokesman for ...
COVID-19 ‘hot spots’ popping up across Africa. They might smolder for years to come
Across Africa, government numbers show coronavirus infections have been significantly lower than in other parts of the world. But from ...
Viewpoint: We can’t blame genetics for government ‘indifference, missteps and political calculations’ in COVID-19 deaths
The influx of geneticists studying Covid-19 is good news; brilliant minds that examine a problem from different perspectives is our ...
African farmers yearn for biotechnology in the face of climate change
Southern Africa is on the receiving end of the devastating impact of climate change, driving millions into hunger. A record ...
Platinum mesh device moves us closer to wearable or implantable artificial kidney
Kidneys clean our blood using nephrons, which are essentially filters that let fluid and waste products through while blocking blood ...
UK environment secretary backs relaxed CRISPR crop rules, but says GMO restrictions won’t change
Addressing MPs via video call, [UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice] said that “gene ...
Hospitals face chronic shortages of injectable opioids. The COVID-19 pandemic made things worse.
For years, hospitals chased supplies, sometimes resorting to inferior substitutes. The shortfall grew so dire in 2018 that a drugmaker ...
Viewpoint: Trump Administration should cut funding to WHO’s IARC cancer agency
The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer] IARC is supposed to be a scientific program that classifies ...
Quest for coronavirus vaccine is the new ‘space race’. Will bragging rights go to China or the US?
The same day in mid-March that the United States launched human testing of its first experimental coronavirus vaccine, scientists in ...
Blood type and COVID-19 severity: Type O may help; Type A may hurt, study says
Scientists who compared the genes of thousands of patients in Europe found that those who had Type A blood were ...
New COVID-19 treatment guidelines coming after inexpensive steroid cuts death rate among hardest-hit patients in trial
Trial results announced on Tuesday [June 16] by researchers in Britain showed dexamethasone, used since the 1960s to reduce inflammation ...
‘This virus has ruined my life’: Some COVID-19 patients have suffered through symptoms for months—with no end in sight
About 80 percent of [COVID-19] infections, according to the World Health Organization, “are mild or asymptomatic,” and patients recover after ...
How supercomputing is taking on the COVID-19 pandemic
In “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams, the haughty supercomputer Deep Thought is asked whether he can ...
EPA defends decision allowing farmers to use banned dicamba herbicides until July 31
EPA defended its decision to allow farmers to continue to use three vacated dicamba herbicides -- XtendiMax, FeXapan and Engenia ...
Viewpoint: Mexico’s glyphosate weedkiller import restrictions could harm farmers and consumers alike
In November, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources denied the importation of a thousand tons of glyphosate, the basic ...
Regeneron’s COVID-19 antibody ‘cocktail’ therapy enters clinical trials—could be ready for emergency use in the fall
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. said [June 11 that] it is beginning to test in humans a potential coronavirus drug, the latest ...
GMO goats can produce ‘blockbuster’ cancer drug in their milk, which could slash prices for patients
Goats can be genetically modified to produce a common cancer drug in their milk, which could slash its production costs ...
US employers turning to pricey and unproven COVID-19 antibody testing
Across America, untold numbers of employers, employees and ordinary citizens are turning to a slew of sometimes pricey new COVID-19 ...
Despite GMO skepticism, German Green Party may endorse crop gene editing to promote farm sustainability
[I]n June 2020, more than twenty officials from the German Green party signed a contribution entitled: "New Times, New Answers: ...
Is the FDA facing political pressure to rush through approval of untested COVID-19 vaccines to fit Trump’s political schedule?
President Donald Trump has promised that there will be a coronavirus vaccine before the year is out. But public health ...
