Science Controversies
Landmark cancer tumor drug Keytruda hampered by glitches
A landmark cancer drug approved last year seemed to herald a long-anticipated change in the treatment of some tumours: with ...
Viewpoint: We need to know if CRISPR works in monkeys and possible off-target effects before we start human trials
Sometime this year, people in the US and Europe will start getting treated for diseases using the gene-editing tool CRISPR, but ...
How we can make vaccines more effective in newborns
The immune system is known for its ability to remember its response to pathogens, leading to more efficient clearance of ...
UK scientists hopeful government will emulate USDA decision to not regulate gene-edited crops
US regulators have ruled crops altered using gene-editing techniques do not need to come under the same restrictions as genetically ...
Proposed Chinese cancer mega-center named after Nobel laureate James Watson may refocus on precision medicine
James Watson, the Nobel laureate who turns 90 this week, was front and center on a red-carpeted stage before an ...
Viewpoint: Peggy Sarlin’s ‘Awakening from Alzheimer’s’ offers ‘false claims, false hope’
[S]cientists are diligently working to understand [Alzheimer’s] disease and find an effective treatment. Others apparently think they needn’t bother. A ...
MIT Media Lab halts relationship with startup Nectome over storing their brains in fatal ‘brain uploads’
The MIT Media Lab will sever ties with a brain-embalming company that promoted euthanasia to people hoping for digital immortality ...
How non-coding ‘junk’ DNA can influence cancer growth
Most of the human genome — 98 percent — is made up of DNA but doesn’t actually encode genes, the ...
Autism treatment could be found through cancer drug
A low dose of a drug used to treat lymphoma may ease social problems in some forms of autism, a ...
Viewpoint: Time to reassess Nazi Hans Asperger’s role in study of autism
I have spent the past seven years researching the Nazi past of Dr. Hans Asperger. Asperger is credited with shaping ...
Can CRISPR be used safely in humans? ‘It’s still an open question’
Biotech has been betting big on Crispr, the gene-editing technique that promises to snip away some of humanity’s worst diseases. But last ...
No chemotherapy: Attacking cancer with immunotherapy ‘vaccine’
A recent Stanford cancer study that cured 97 percent of mice from tumors has now moved on to soliciting human ...
Infertility could be ended with emerging technologies, including CRISPR
Through an emerging technology called in vitro gametogenesis (or IVG), scientists are learning how to convert adult human cells—taken perhaps ...
Will the rest of the world follow the US in not regulating gene-edited crops?
The [USDA] says it has no plans to regulate advanced breeding techniques that achieve the same results as traditional techniques, only ...
Viewpoint: To get the most out of CRISPR, we need ‘sensible regulations with an aspirational mindset’
The idea of genome editing is no longer a theoretical concept studied only within the confines of labs and scientific research ...
Pancreatic cancer rates are surging. Here’s why
Five years ago [pancreatic cancer] was the fourth-leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. Today it's number three and ...
No outrage: Why news of first cloned monkeys barely moved the needle
[Cloned monkeys] Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua were created at the Chinese Academy of Science’s Institute of Neuroscience in Shanghai ...
Herpes is rampant but there’s no vaccine in sight. Is it next on the gene editing cure list?
The fact is, almost everyone has herpes. Just so we’re defining our terms, genital herpes refers to the incredibly common ...
Scientist to CEO: Caribou Biosciences’ Rachel Haurwitz targets cancer with CRISPR
In a fashionable fitted blazer, Rachel Haurwitz looks the part of a polished executive when she meets me in the ...
CRISPR as a ‘medical sleuth’: Gene-editing tool could detect Zika, Ebola and cancer
Some of the world’s leading CRISPR labs have, independently, tweaked CRISPR — adding bursts of light here and rings of ...
‘Unrandom selection’: CRISPR merged with AI (artificial intelligence) may change what it means to be human
Modern medicine and rapidly advancing technology have seen us greatly evolve from the early days of hunter-gatherers, and now the ...
GMO labeling emerges as hot-button issue in organic and conventional food industry fights
Editor's note: This article is part three of a three-part series by Marc Brazeau on his 2018 predictions on food, ...
Viewpoint: We aren’t even close to being able to engineer superhumans
We know there are genes that contribute to intelligence. But the relationship between those genes and our intelligence is so ...
Finding a CRISPR delivery route in humans is the hard part
Crispr, the promising new gene editing technology, promises to eradicate the world of human suffering—but for all the hype and hope, it hasn’t ...
Using DNA to store data? US defense agency DARPA is trying
[T]he Department of Defense agency tasked with funding science’s most far-out hopes has begun investing millions in discovering radical, non-binary ...
Podcast: What if we could use artificial wombs to save premature babies?
Ectogenesis, that is the gestation outside of a biological womb, sounds like science fiction. But one of the top stories ...
Genetic Literacy Project’s Top 6 Stories for the Week – Jan. 29, 2018
Plagued by pest, African farmers may soon have access to insect-resistant GMO cowpeas—for free | Paul McDivitt Genetic engineering, CRISPR and ...
