Science Controversies
‘Evolution in action’: How did this common gut bacteria turn lethal?
For three decades, the deadly bacteria sat in cold storage. Normally, Enterococcus faecalis lives harmlessly in the human gut. One particular strain, ...
Viewpoint: Our desperate need for new antibiotics won’t be met without government incentives
As the number of infections resistant to antimicrobial drugs continues to rise around the world, and with it their huge ...
With its biotech scientists forced overseas, New Zealand should rethink strict GMO rules, official says
New Zealand has a proud history of innovators and pioneering entrepreneurs who have turned ideas into world-beating businesses. It is ...
Stanford investigation clears faculty members that knew about CRISPR baby scandal
A Stanford investigation has cleared three prominent faculty members of helping with a controversial gene-editing experiment led by disgraced Chinese ...
Geneticist Alison Van Eenennaam: The biotech advocate anti-GMO groups ‘love to hate’
Facing a tide of anti-GMO activism, [UC Davis animal geneticist Alison] Van Eenennaam has taken it upon herself to advocate ...
Cancer has a male bias and we’re just starting to understand why
More than half of neurooncologist Josh Rubin’s pediatric brain cancer patients over his 25-year career have been boys. … About a ...
EU adopts new rules to quell mistrust of food safety studies based on industry data
New rules designed to increase transparency in the EU food safety risk assessment process have been adopted. The European Parliament ...
Meet 5 RNA ‘movers and shakers’ including one that may protect against Alzheimer’s
RNAs, composed of strings of genetic letters called nucleotides, are best known for ferrying instructions from the genes in our ...
Viewpoint: Ghana’s anti-GMO groups urged to embrace gene editing technology
Scientists are urging Ghana’s anti-GMO groups to embrace gene editing technology to help ensure a more effective and productive agricultural ...
GMO AquAdvantage salmon labeling questions resurface
AquaBounty Technologies, creator of the first-ever salmon genetically engineered for commercial production, doesn’t have to notify Canadian buyers that its ...
Do ‘loopholes’ in organic, non-GMO labeling rules mislead consumers?
The North Dakota State Collegiate Future Farmers of America and NDSU Collegiate Farm Bureau hosted a food information forum to ...
Why a mysterious fungus could herald a dangerous era in drug-resistant infections
A fungus called Candida auris preys on people with weakened immune systems, and it is quietly spreading across the globe ...
Why esketamine will force doctors to rethink office visits for depressed patients
The Food and Drug Administration approved esketamine (Spravato) for treatment-resistant depression to be administered under physician supervision. It’s a derivative of ...
Belgium permits CRISPR-edited corn field trial, halted after landmark EU court decision, to continue
On April 12, 2019 [the Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie in Belgium] was granted a permit for its field trial with ...
Video: Geneticist Pamela Ronald breaks down basics of GMO safety, labeling
Name a food preference and you can likely find items in the supermarket aisles to accommodate your wants and needs: ...
Why scientific arguments won’t end Europe’s opposition to CRISPR-edited crops
John van der Oost....is a microbiologist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. His research in the late 1990s contributed to ...
When cancer becomes contagious: Seeking better understanding of rare transmissible forms of the disease
The untrained eye likely wouldn’t have noticed, but doctoral student Ruth Pye immediately spotted something unusual about the way the cells were ...
5 things to know about USDA bioengineered food labels, hitting stores in 2020
In July 2016, President Obama signed the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Law (NBFDL), requiring food manufacturers to disclose the presence ...
5 things to consider with direct-to-consumer health products
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) versions of teeth alignment kits, genetic tests, hearing aids, heart-rhythm monitors, neurostimulation devices, and mental health tools are ...
Viewpoint: Europe’s overregulation of CRISPR-edited crops ‘cripples’ Africa’s food security efforts
Current GMO regulation is crippling advancements in sustainable development and food security, according to agricultural economist Matin Qaim, who told ...
FDA announces controversial ‘risk-based’ rules for CRISPR-edited animal technology
Novel biotechnology, like genome editing, holds tremendous potential to improve animal health, enhance farm productivity, improve nutrition, and even reduce ...
How evolutionary pressure could be harnessed in cancer treatments
Cancer cells develop resistance to the powerful chemicals deployed to destroy them. Even if cancer therapies kill most of the ...
Why we need to get better at analyzing all of that disease data we’ve been collecting
Our ability to collect data far outpaces our ability to fully utilize it—yet those data may hold the key to ...
Crop biotech industry fears ‘mistrust of science’ stifling farming innovation in Europe
For several weeks last fall I spent much of my time traveling across Europe, visiting with many of the representatives ...
Viewpoint: Autism research is leaving girls behind
Evidence that clinicians are missing girls with autism has been building for years. Because autistic girls tend to exhibit different traits than ...
‘Super smeller’ woman boosts effort to create early diagnosis tool for Parkinson’s disease
Long before Les Milne began exhibiting the telltale signs of Parkinson’s disease, his wife Joy—a so-called “super smeller” capable of detecting ...
Canada green lights commercial production of AquAdvantage GMO salmon at Prince Edward Island facility
Environment Canada has approved the commercial production of genetically-modified salmon produced in a facility in eastern [Prince Edward Island], says ...
