Science Controversies
New diagnostic weapon: Genetic tests can also detect infectious disease
Doctors routinely use genetic tests to spot inherited diseases and guide cancer treatment. But using them to detect infectious diseases ...
Viewpoint: We don’t need another study to convince us that gene-edited babies are a bad idea
He [Jiankui] attempted to disable a gene called CCR5 by producing a variant that has been shown to confer resistance ...
Video: Year-long experiment of eating expired food raises doubts about ‘sell by’ dates
Last year, Mom’s Organic Market founder and chief executive Scott Nash did something many of us are afraid to do: ...
Viewpoint: US government’s clinical trial registry plagued by ‘bogus’ patient-funded stem-cell trials
When a judge ruled [June 3] that the FDA could stop the work of U.S. Stem Cell, the firm’s trials ...
Legal experts say USDA unlikely to enforce violations of new bioengineered label law
The advice Martin Hahn, a partner at law firm Hogan Lovells, gave at the Institute of Food Technologists conference on ...
Could a virus be causing mysterious ‘polio-like’ disease affecting children?
Researchers say they have strong new evidence that a virus is involved in a rare and puzzling polio-like condition that ...
Bayer owns the global food supply? Seed company mergers haven’t inflated prices, stifled innovation, study shows
•Detailed data show that concentration in seed markets varies strongly across crops and countries. •There is no clear evidence of ...
Legalizing pot won’t slow the opioid epidemic, study suggests
Nearly five years ago, a team of researchers performing a study on medical cannabis came to a startling conclusion: The ...
Fecal transplant death sparks new FDA screening precautions, pause of clinical trials
One patient has died and another became seriously ill after fecal transplants inadvertently seeded their innards with a multi-drug resistant ...
Viewpoint: Congressional proposal to loosen court ruling that blocked companies from patenting genes could ‘stifle’ science innovation
In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of innovation when it struck down a patent that gave one ...
New migraine treatments a game changer for some patients
Chronic migraine disorder, which a neurologist diagnosed [Michelle] Tracy with shortly after her initial ER visit, is defined as having ...
Why an FDA legal victory won’t stop controversial stem cell clinics
When the Food and Drug Administration won a landmark lawsuit [June 3] against a stem cell company, health officials hailed ...
Million dollar question: Is the microbiome the key to diagnosing, fighting chronic disease?
What if the solution to our health problems is already inside our bodies? The human body is replete with billions ...
How the rush to decriminalize magic mushrooms could hurt psychedelic drug research
Welcome to a murky new front in the war to bring psychedelics out of the shadows and into both legal ...
Video: ‘Technology freedom—we want, we want’: Farmers protest India’s GMO crop restrictions
5,000 farmers in India staged a protest to demand access to GMO crops, with some risking up to five years ...
Restorative stem cell treatments? William Shatner pitching stem cell therapies’ that evidence shows don’t work
Shatner has not been known, especially on Twitter, for his reflective nature or critical thinking abilities. ... Star Trek star ...
Harnessing biological clocks to boost fight against disease, parasites
[Evolutionary parasitologist Sarah] Reece and other scientists are exploring an idea that is making waves in biology: If the body ...
Viewpoint: Working with drug companies to help terminally ill patients gain access to experimental drugs
My colleagues and I at New York University’s Division of Medical Ethics quickly recognized that right to try could not ...
President Trump signs executive order that aims to streamline approvals for gene-edited and GMO crops, animals
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on [June 11] directing federal agencies to streamline the review process for ...
Congress considers allowing gene patents to keep pace with Chinese innovations
In 2013, the Supreme Court unanimously struck down patents on two human genes—BRCA1 and BRCA2—associated with breast and ovarian cancers ...
EU vegetable oil producers join 26 farm, science organizations calling for updated CRISPR crops rules
Plant breeding innovations need to be treated differently to GMOs in order to leverage their potential to contribute to sustainability ...
Making a case against ‘aggressive’ restrictions on opioid prescriptions
[Stefan] Kertesz, a primary care physician who also specializes in addiction medicine, had not spent his career investigating long-term opioid ...
Viewpoint: Welcome to California, where coffee causes—and prevents—cancer
California's Proposition 65, which began its miserable life as The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, now has ...
Viewpoint: ‘Race realists’ distort science to promote controversial political views
Far-right and anti-immigrant groups have once more become visible and powerful across Europe and the US. … I have spent ...
5,000 farmers to plant illegal GMO cotton, eggplant in protest of India’s biotech crop rules
As many as 5,000 people are expected to come together in Maharashtra’s Akola district [June 10] for what will be ...
Ethical ‘quagmire’: How one ALS patient got in line for a therapy never tested in humans
The FDA gave Jaci Hermstad, a 25-year old Iowan who is dying from a rare form of ALS, an early ...
EU health commissioner: Anti-vaccine, glyphosate ‘conspiracy theories’ threaten Europe with ‘new middle ages’
Europe’s Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis on [June 7] warned that conspiracy theories were winning the argument against science in Europe ...
