Science Controversies
Advances in technology spur calls for EU law amendments around GMOs
Researchers have come forward in support of a recent proposal from The Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, to ...
Opioid controversy: FDA approves powerful new drug despite addiction concerns
In a highly controversial move, the Food and Drug Administration approved an especially powerful opioid painkiller despite criticism that the ...
Abuse of open records requests by activists, corporations threatens government transparency, report shows
Dennis J. Ventry Jr., a law professor at the University of California, Davis, drew the ire of tax preparation companies ...
Viewpoint: FDA plan to treat gene-edited animals like ‘walking drugs’ will stifle agricultural innovation
Nov. 3 marked One Health Day (www.onehealthcommission.org) – an international campaign to recognize the importance of a broad, trans-disciplinary approach ...
Viewpoint: Obstructionist governments have kept the ‘green revolution’ out of Africa
A green revolution—the increase in agricultural yields seen in most parts of the poor world apart from Africa since the ...
Appendix removal reduces risk of Parkinson’s disease, study suggests
The appendix, a once-dismissed organ now known to play a role in the immune system, may contribute to a person’s ...
Despite EU gene-editing restrictions, Dutch government may greenlight CRISPR crop studies
Dutch agriculture minister Carola Schouten is considering allowing experiments involving a ‘light form’ of crop genetic modification even though the ...
FDA plan to regulate a gene-edited animal as a ‘drug’ will ‘choke’ research, experts say
Despite the Trump administration's calls to increase innovation in biotechnology in a new draft proposal, experts say the classification of genetic editing ...
Novel therapies to combat deadly superbugs caused by antibiotic overuse
The overuse and misuse of antibiotics are key factors behind the evolution of so-called superbugs, multiresistant bacteria that are growing ...
The stuff that ‘makes magic mushrooms so magic’ moves closer to FDA approval for treating depression
The active ingredient that makes magic mushrooms so magic—the psychedelic drug psilocybin—is one step closer to becoming a legal treatment for ...
Talking Biotech: How regulation threatens the future of biotechnology
Technology is revolutionizing health care and food production. But excessive regulation slows these important developments. What does this mean for ...
Vitamin-A fortified GMO banana may finally debut in Uganda in 2021, 16 years after research began
Ugandan scientists are eying a 2021 release date for genetically modified bananas fortified with vitamin A, provided the nation passes ...
Animal biotechnologist Alison Van Eenennaam questions FDA plan to classify CRISPR gene-edited animals as drugs
The [FDA in 2019] will roll out several guidance documents meant to provide “intensive assistance” for navigating its guidelines for ...
Some US towns were untouched by 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. The military wants to know why.
[On 4 June 1919, the Spanish flu] had finally found its way to the remote native Inuit communities that dotted ...
Podcast: South Australian farmers want access to GMO crops as moratorium debate rages
ABC reports on debate over South Australia’s GMO moratorium. Flinders MP Peter Treloar states that he has not seen any ...
Why gender evades easy definitions regardless of what the Trump administration says
According to a recent report in the New York Times, the Department of Health and Human Services is “considering narrowly defining gender as ...
Why being tall may increase your cancer risk
Taller people have a greater risk of cancer because they are bigger and so have more cells in their bodies ...
Chasing the virus behind surging polio-like illness
[Fall 2014] Kevin Messacar, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Colorado, started seeing a wave of children with inexplicable paralysis. All of ...
Drugs for mental disorders: Why better access to services ‘will likely make things worse’
To reduce the rising burden of mental disorders around the world, the Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health and Sustainable ...
Designer babies are already here—and why we should be worried
Matthew assumed the weakness in his knee was the sort of orthopedic nuisance that happens when you turn 30. … ...
Viewpoint: Biotech industry must invest more in public outreach, or risk losing GMO debate to activists
Agri-food is a $110 billion industry in Canada. Canola, just canola, supports 250,000 jobs and has a $26 billion impact ...
‘First drug of its kind’ flu medication gains approval
The flu vaccine remains the best proactive way to protect yourself and your loved ones from the influenza virus. But ...
Scientists can save one of Uganda’s staple crops with genetic engineering—if lawmakers will let them
Ugandan scientists are accelerating their outreach to lawmakers to make them aware of improved crops like disease-resistant cassava .... Cassava, ...
Viewpoint: Experts need to engage, educate the public on benefits of animal gene editing
Gene editing shows considerable potential for improving animal health and welfare and food safety while reducing dependence on antimicrobials and ...
EU’s ‘stringent’ gene-edited crop regulations starting to ‘chill’ plant breeding research
Three months after the European Union’s top court gave gene-edited crops the same stringent legal status as genetically modified (GM) ...
Diagnosing rare infectious diseases with genetic sequencing
Early last spring, as flu season hit its peak, a woman checked into a Houston hospital with all the familiar ...
Cartoons offer ‘simple’ whimsical look at cancer immunotherapy through the eyes of scientists
Four years ago, I was hired for a new and terrific job: to help my colleagues at Solebury Trout and ...
