Science Controversies
Are we ‘playing God’ if we screen IVF embryos for IQ potential?
IVF clinics may soon use a controversial screening technique to get rid of embryos which are likely to grow up ...
China halts human gene editing in wake of controversial trial resulting in birth of twins
The Chinese government on Thursday ordered a temporary halt to research activities for people involved in the editing of human ...
How the news of China’s gene-edited babies blew up
He Jiankui didn’t wake up on Sunday [November 25] expecting his world to change. … He knew international attention was ...
Gene editing set to revolutionize agriculture—but how should it be regulated?
In the next few decades, humanity faces its biggest food crisis since the invention of the plow. The planet’s population, ...
Boost for precision medicine? FDA approves drug targeting different cancers with shared mutation
The Food and Drug Administration on [November 26] approved a drug for a wide range of cancers based on a ...
Viewpoint: Why gene drives should be left in the hands of nonprofits
Gene drive and other methods of editing the genomes of wild organisms could save millions of lives and prevent billions ...
‘Anti-evolution drug’ could stop superbugs from mutating
Over the past 90 years, scientists have discovered hundreds of antibiotics—microbe-killing drugs that have brought many pernicious diseases to heel ...
Controversial Chinese scientist defends gene-edited babies: ‘I feel proud’
The Chinese scientist who sparked an international outcry after alleging to have helped create the world's first genetically edited babies, ...
Ethics and the controversial decision to make gene-edited babies
For someone who has caused a worldwide uproar over what many fellow scientists consider an ethical outrage, He Jiankui of ...
130 researchers urge Europe not to banish crop gene-editing with ‘strict’ regulations
Even plants that are modified with modern genetic engineering methods such as …. CRISPR / Cas9 are to be tested ...
‘Misinformation’ has fueled fear of GMO crops in India, expert says
Hundreds of research studies that have been reviewed showed no proof that genetically modified (GM) crops had side effects, according ...
There’s still much we don’t know about world’s first gene-edited babies
A Chinese scientist has shocked the world with claims he used the genome editing technology CRISPR-Cas9 to manipulate the genes ...
CRISPR uproar: Chinese researcher claims first gene-edited babies
A Chinese researcher claims that he helped make the world’s first genetically edited babies — twin girls born this month ...
Chasing the mysterious polio-like disorder striking children
A runny nose or cough are normal symptoms during the fall, but this year doctors in the United States and ...
Solitary confinement may cause ‘irreversible’ damage to the brain
There are an estimated 80,000 people, mostly men, in solitary confinement in U.S. prisons. They are confined to windowless cells ...
Fear of GMOs scares China’s consumers, slows agricultural innovation
In the midst of a trade war with the United States, Chinese President Xi Jinping keeps repeating that China is ...
Viewpoint: An argument against using genetically modified mosquitos to fight malaria in Africa
Some scientists have proposed genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes as a solution to controlling malaria, a scourge that has been around ...
Using gene editing to improve animal welfare may quell fear of ‘Franken-animals’
A company wants to alter farm animals by adding and subtracting genetic traits in a lab. It sounds like science ...
European Commission science advisers say political decision limiting crop gene editing will leave Europe a technological straggler
Laws in the EU should be changed to allow plants developed through controversial gene-editing techniques to be more easily put on ...
Using machine learning to hunt for the origins of new viruses
When a new virus crops up in people, health authorities face an urgent question: Where did it come from? Thousands of viruses ...
With regulation bottlenecks surrounding biotechnology, how do gene-edited crops get from the lab to the farm?
Restrictive regulation of genome-edited crops could limit the future impact of these crops on agriculture. Globally, genome-edited crops are currently ...
Growing our own bones: Another step in regenerative medicine?
[Nina] Tandon is co-founder and CEO of EpiBone, a company working on custom-growing bones using patients’ own stem cells. In a ...
Viewpoint: Why our nation needs to expand access to genetic counselors
Recently, our country saw an incredibly rare event — the introduction of a bipartisan bill. The bill — H.R. 7083 ...
University students embrace biotech research as Africa gradually embraces crop biotechnology
Though most African nations have been slow to commercialize genetically modified crops, students across the continent remain committed to earning ...
Can llamas give us a universal flu vaccine?
Llama antibodies are different from ours. Our antibodies are a mix of two pairs of proteins, heavy and light, wrapped ...
Should Europe’s 17-year-old GMO regulations apply to CRISPR-edited crops?
Dutch Agriculture Minister Carola Schouten said recently that CRISPR gene editing is indispensable for making agriculture more sustainable. Using this new technology, ...
How immunotherapy uses our immune system to attack cancer
Our usual defence against disease is our immune system. It does an excellent job of sorting out what doesn’t belong ...
