Science Controversies
Rewriting nature: The promise and peril of gene editing wildlife to save it
[One] of the world's largest conservation groups will weigh in on how ... gene-editing tools should be used to aid ...
Viewpoint: Tylenol causes autism? Diet Coke brain tumors? Ice cream shark attacks? None of the claims is true—unless you’re an activist or a tort lawyer
Every week, the headlines blare a new health apocalypse: “Diet soda causes depression!” “Tylenol in pregnancy linked to autism!” “Pesticides ...
Viewpoint: Why de-extinction efforts should be redirected at classical habitat conservation or improving agricultural production
“In considering the risks of recombinant DNA, we shy at kittens and cuddle tigers.” Thus James Watson, co-discoverer with Francis ...
Latest Trump and RFK, Jr. health misinformation rabbit hole: No, aluminum in vaccines is not dangerous or causally linked to autism
“We want no aluminum in the vaccine,” Trump said during the White House press conference, surprising even some ardent anti-vaccine ...
Beyond BMI: Is obesity a disease?
The Lancet Commission has declared obesity a disease. With enough controversy to fill a buffet table, their new definition is sparking ...
Industrial ‘white biotechnology’ poised to jump-start Nigerian economy
Nigeria, with its abundant biodiversity, dynamic population, and growing technological capabilities, is uniquely positioned to harness biotechnology for transformative growth ...
Vaccine rejectionism spurring continued surge in U.S. measles cases
Nearly two months after a deadly, massive measles outbreak in Texas was declared over, the highly contagious disease continues to spread across ...
What do MAHA and MAGA supporters think about vaccines?
At the start of his second term, President Donald Trump established the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, chaired by Health and ...
Chemophobia: From anti-corporate liberal left to MAHA right, it’s getting worse
Chemophobia is complicated, but, in short, it’s a distrust or fear of chemicals and appears in many of aspects of ...
Viewpoint: Revisiting the debate over genes and IQ
In The Bell Curve, Murray and Herrnstein argue that intelligence, as measured by an IQ score, is a crucial determinant of ...
Britain’s landmark agricultural gene editing law kicks in next month. Here’s what to expect
Over the next few years, we could see the arrival of not just genetically altered tomatoes, but also bananas and ...
GLP podcast: America’s overdose epidemic, explained
The story most people know about America's opioid epidemic, a public health crisis claiming over 1 million lives since 1999, ...
Viewpoint: ‘The rise in autism rates cannot solely be attributed to more accurate diagnoses’
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) recently presented startling figures on the increase in autism diagnoses from 2010 to ...
‘Blood bath’: American soybean farmers are panicking as trade war with China escalates
China hasn’t booked any U.S. soybean purchases in months, making the oilseed a potent weapon in Beijing’s trade fight with ...
Gay and lesbian conversion therapy: The Supreme Court is debating its legal future. What is it?
As a teenager, Julie Rodgers attended Tuesday night group therapy sessions in which young people confessed their same-sex transgressions: anal ...
MAGA delusion: Republicans far more likely than Democrats and independents to believe Trump and RFK, Jr.’s false claim that tylenol use can cause autism
While few adults across partisanship think that it is “definitely true” that taking Tylenol during pregnancy increases the risk of ...
Chestnuts, rats, and rhinos: Can biotechnology become a key tool in conservation?
What do the American Chestnut tree, the black rat, and the northern white rhinoceros have in common? They are all ...
Viewpoint: 10 reasons why we should not fear GMO fruits
[1.] Many people think genetically modified fruit is a recent invention, but the first GMO fruit hit the market in the 1990s. ...
Viewpoint: Despite environmental activist claims, bird and insect populations are not crashing in Britain
The scientific evidence increasingly refutes the alarmist narrative that our farmland bird and insect populations are disappearing due to intensive ...
Key to ocean life, coral reefs are disappearing on the way to extinction. Should we mobilize gene editing to save a threatened species?
Coral reefs are fundamental to the health of our oceans. They cover less than 1% of the Earth’s ocean, but ...
Skin cells can now be used to fertilize eggs
Human eggs made from a volunteer’s skin DNA were fertilized in the lab on September 30, 2025, and some grew ...
Dystopian future? Should the wealthy be able to use AI to hardwire physical or cognitive advantages into their genomes
It is quite possible that the most immediate threat AI poses to humanity is not that its superhuman intelligence will ...
Male Gen Zers’ rejection of reason: ‘Science can slide into conspiracy-tinged mazes rooted in misinformation’
After 30 years as a researcher, science communicator and university science teacher, I’ve been unsettled by what appears to be ...
Circumcision can lead to autism? RFK, Jr. and Trump again misinterpret studies, make false claims
We’ve been working on this article for weeks. Poring over studies on the Tylenol-autism topic. Just before we got it ...
A liver extracted from a genetically modified pig transplanted into a 71-year-old man
Surgeons in China have for the first time transplanted a section of liver extracted from a genetically modified pig into ...
‘Gene-edited sheep’ are a hot commodity on the black market
The way the federal agents swarmed Jack Schubarth’s ranch in Montana on a late-spring day in 2021, it seemed they ...
Determining your ‘biological age’: Helpful information or longevity scam
You get older every day. But how old are your cells and organs, really? ... Biological age and chronological age ...
