Science Controversies
CRISPR ‘super-soldiers?’ Why we need international gene-editing rules
Within this century, human beings will be capable of changing their genes to modify traits like intelligence, or even instincts ...
Viewpoint: We aren’t doing enough to protect people against ‘false promises’ of unproven stem cell treatments
In an announcement of no surprise, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) again officially warned a company it previously warned in ...
Chinese scientists aren’t keeping tabs on experimental gene therapy patients, report says
Gene therapies are very much at their preliminary stages of development, so it would make sense to keep tabs on ...
Prosecutors charge alleged ringleader of $140 million fraudulent organic farming scheme
A Missouri farmer and businessman ripped off consumers nationwide by falsely marketing more than $140 million worth of corn, soybeans ...
Do we really need a more potent, and more addictive, opioid?
In the midst of a national opioid crisis, how badly do we need another formidable painkiller? This vexing question has ...
Audio: Crash course on the CRISPR-edited foods headed for grocery stores
Genetically modified organisms, GMOs, have been common on American farms for years. But a new generation of gene-edited food, through ...
‘Human gene-editing scandal’: Should rogue scientist’s work be published?
How do you handle the data of a scientist who violates all the norms of his field? … On the one hand, you ...
Viewpoint: Indian scientist M.S. Swaminathan’s unscientific attack on GMO crops won’t help his country grow more food
[In November], Indian journal Current Science published a thinly-veiled attack against the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in agriculture .... [T]he Current Science piece ...
CRISPR gene editing could turn wild plants into productive food crops
The lantern-shaped groundcherry, with its distinctive paper-thin husk, tomato-like texture and flavor akin to kiwi, seems to deserve a place ...
How 100-year-old tissue samples could rewrite the Spanish flu’s deadly history
Late one night Michael Worobey began poking around on the internet, looking for descendants of a World War I British ...
Why can’t we stop rogue scientists from engaging in dubious research?
[C]an the public control science that leaves us with permanent and unenviable consequences? Recent news suggests that the answer is ...
Animal gene editing could ‘transform’ our food supply, but will ‘questionable regulations’ block innovation?
As scientists in labs across the world create virus-resistant pigs, heat-tolerant cattle and fatter, more muscular lambs, a big question looms: Will regulation, safety ...
Controversial treatment: Can we treat drug addiction with heroin?
As overdose deaths have broken records year after year in the U.S., a group of researchers has looked around the ...
Searching for infectious canine cancer in the shadow of Chernobyl
After the [Chernobyl] explosion, over 90,000 people were evacuated from hundreds of towns and communities in the vicinity of the ...
‘Tribe before truth’: Why scientific knowledge without curiosity can be polarizing
What intellectual capacities—or if one prefers, cognitive virtues—should the citizens of a modern democratic society possess? For decades, one dominant ...
India’s Supreme Court set to rule whether Monsanto maintains its patent rights on GMO Bt Corn
All eyes in India are currently on the country’s Supreme Court where the agro-biotech giant Monsanto is battling to reclaim ...
Capturing a glimpse of how CRISPR could help agriculture by removing allergens and boosting nutritional quality
In a lab at George Washington University, painted lady butterflies flutter in mesh houses. This is where assistant professor Arnault ...
Plague genome offers clues about origins of Black Death pandemic
Yersinia pestis, the subject of [Barbara Bramanti’s] research, is the bacterium responsible for three bubonic plague pandemics over human history ...
‘Cheap and simple’ 10-minute blood test can detect traces of cancer
Scientists have developed a universal cancer test that can detect traces of the disease in a patient’s bloodstream. The cheap ...
‘Stemness’ and the downside of limiting our definition of stem cells
As more sophisticated technology has revealed just how plastic and heterogeneous cell populations can be, some researchers have transitioned from ...
Viewpoint: Arguments against crop gene editing rely on ‘cherry-picking half-truths’
Critics of the use of advanced biotechnologies in the agri-food sector (“New Breeding Techniques,” comprising CRISPR) demand a strict regulation ...
Targeting cancer with sugar-powered immunotherapy
Over the last few decades, researchers tinkering with molecules that turn an immune cell on and off have created a ...
Viewpoint: How the United Nations stifles biotechnology innovation
The political elites who advocate bigger and more intrusive government habitually try to use scientific literacy as a rhetorical cudgel ...
Bayer needs ‘Ph.D-type jurors’ to win upcoming glyphosate-cancer trials, expert says
In August, a San Francisco County Superior Court jury ordered Monsanto [now owned by Bayer] to pay former school groundskeeper ...
‘Less expected’: China condemns research yielding gene-edited babies
On Nov. 26, U.S.-trained, Shenzhen-based He Jiankui announced that he’d altered the genes of a human embryo to create the ...
CRISPR-edited wine grapes could cut pesticide use in Europe, but regulatory hurdles remain
When you toast during the holidays .... think about [this]: grape vines occupy 3 percent of the land cultivated in ...
