Science Controversies
FDA investigation: Traces of possible carcinogens found in common heartburn meds, including Zantac, raising pharmaceutical supply chain safety concerns
Regulators in the U.S. and Europe are investigating why traces of a possible carcinogen were found in certain heartburn drugs, ...
Viewpoint: 5 reasons there’s a ‘civil war’ brewing between organic food advocates
There’s something of a civil war brewing in the organic movement. On one side are industry boosters boasting about how ...
Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda utilize Kenya’s biotech research, while nation still bans GMOs
Countries like Ethiopia, Nigeria and Rwanda are increasingly using Kenya’s biotechnology research findings to guide their food security plans as ...
Meet Garlic, China’s first ever cloned cat
Devastated by the death of his previous cat, Garlic, Huang [Yu] sought the services of biotechnology company Sinogene. The Beijing-based ...
Biological passports? How anti-doping organizations catch cheating athletes
As athletes experiment with drugs that can help give them an edge over their competition, they tweak their strategies to ...
Podcast: A brief history of CRISPR gene-editing—and how it could change our food supply
Vegetables engineered with the gene-editing technology Crispr are moving closer to supermarket shelves. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has decided ...
On verge of extinction, polio sweeps through Pakistan thanks to anti-vax movement
Polio is making a troubling comeback in Pakistan, and it is being driven by some of the same forces spreading measles ...
Processed foods key factor in uptick in colorectal cancer among young adults?
Although still rare, affecting roughly 4 percent of adults over their lifetimes, according to the National Cancer Institute, colorectal cancer is becoming ...
Gene editing used in China in a failed but promising attempt to cure HIV
Scientists in China have used CRISPR gene-editing technology to treat a patient with HIV, but it didn't cure the patient, ...
Viewpoint: Europe’s strict GMO crop cultivation rules encourage Amazon deforestation
EU based anti-GMO environmental organizations have ensured that European farmers don’t have access to leading agronomic technologies, resulting in less ...
Viewpoint: Animal rights activists ‘reckless’ and ‘inhumane’ for pushing back against animal testing to find an AIDS vaccine
In July, researchers eliminated HIV from the genome of a mouse using antiviral therapy and CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing. It was the first ...
First real anti-aging drug on the horizon? Common drugs turned back body’s epigenetic clock 2.5 years in small trial
A small clinical study in California has suggested for the first time that it might be possible to reverse the ...
Transplant shortage? Don’t generate human organs in animals, use stem cell technology to develop organoids
Xenotransplantation experiments, generating human organs in animals for transplantation, are being conducted in sheep, pigs, and, recently, in nonhuman primates ...
Pregnant women, teenagers warned to stay away from marijuana by surgeon general
The federal government on [August 29] issued an advisory warning against marijuana use in teenagers and pregnant women, cautioning that ...
Fear of CRISPR-edited crops driven by ‘socio-political factors,’ not science, biotech experts say
It should come as no surprise that innovation is linked to uncertainty, especially when its effects are wide-ranging and can ...
Menopausal hormone therapy linked to breast cancer risk—even after patients stop taking drugs
A sweeping new analysis adds to the evidence that many women who take hormone therapy during menopause are more likely ...
EU glyphosate battle: Monsanto list of policy makers, journalists not illegal, Bayer says
Bayer said a law firm it commissioned to investigate lists compiled by Monsanto of European journalists, politicians and researchers had ...
Japanese woman receives first artificial cornea created from reprogrammed stem cells
A Japanese woman in her forties has become the first person in the world to have her cornea repaired using ...
Viewpoint: FDA animal gene-editing rules boost food waste, stifle US agriculture research
A proposed U.S. regulatory framework for how the FDA treats gene-edited livestock may do more than put U.S. livestock producers ...
AI has the power to advance healthcare. Here’s why it hasn’t yet ‘moved the needle’
The promise of AI to solve our health and wellness woes almost seems inevitable. From DeepMind’s algorithms that match or ...
Researchers may get better access to marijuana if DEA follows through on latest pledge
[August 26], the Drug Enforcement Administration announced plans to create new regulations to expand scientific and medical research on marijuana ...
‘Patchwork’ of global gene editing regulations will harm seed production, group warns
Failing to harmonize international regulations around the use of gene editing in agricultural production will hurt seed production globally ...
Viewpoint: Crop biotech industry’s ‘poor communication’ fueled explosion of Non-GMO Project labels
Today in North America, the Non-GMO Project Verified logo is on over 50,000 food products that bring in more than ...
Breakthrough could help us understand why some tick bites cause bizarre red meat allergies
Scientists at the University of Virginia have seemingly come closer to unraveling the mystery behind a strange red meat allergy ...
Bacterial gene found in CRISPR-edited cow DNA raises new regulatory hurdles for animal gene editing
They were the poster animals for the gene-editing revolution, appearing in story after story. By adding just a few letters ...
This company wants to freeze your T cells for future cancer treatments. Experts call the idea ‘unproven’
A new cryopreservation bank offers customers the chance to stash away their T cells for use in future cancer treatments ...
Patient death prompts new rules for fecal transplants: ‘Why weren’t these guidelines already in place?’
In June [2019], after a patient died and another was sickened from a fecal transplant that contained drug-resistant bacteria, the ...
