Science Controversies
Science vs. sales: The antiaging field is booming–with both promise and charlatans
The antiaging world exists far beyond the laboratory. There is a booming business around lifespan extension, chock full of sleek ...
China enthusiastically embracing gene-edited crops
Researchers in China are ecstatic about their government's approval of gene-edited crops, claiming that it clears the way for the plants' ...
More than 7 million immunocompromised people in the US remain vulnerable to COVID. How should their concerns be addressed?
COVID-19 is still all around us, everywhere, and millions of people... are walking around with a compromised immune system. A ...
Livestock farming of the future: Climate friendly sheep and salmon that eat less and grow faster are in our future
Livestock production worldwide generates 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), including climate-wrecking methane, ...
Viewpoint: Double standard — EU approves genetically modified vaccines but blocks GE crops developed with the same technology
No epidemic in the world has been as impactful in health, economic and social terms as Corona-19. Following the emergence ...
On the path to a universal COVID vaccine
Is chasing the latest variant a viable strategy? Instead of testing and potentially deploying a new shot when a new ...
Vaccinating the elderly: An unappreciated strategy to reduce COVID deaths
No other basic fact of life matters as dramatically as age for COVID. Other common factors associated with risk—race, diabetes, ...
Pro-GMO Indian farmers defy government restrictions, plant unapproved insect resistant Bt eggplant
Maharashtra farmers, under the aegis of Shetkari Sanghatana, activists and farmers launched a drive on [February 17] to cultivate Bt ...
Babies of vaccinated mothers less likely to be hospitalized with COVID, CDC study finds
Mothers who get vaccinated against COVID-19 while pregnant are likely to pass on protection against the virus to their newborn ...
BioNTech’s audacious plan to bring portable vaccine factories to Africa and the rest of the developing world
At the heart of its site in Marburg, Germany, BioNTech is putting the finishing touches on a new kind of ...
Some paralyzed patients are up and walking within a day thanks to these revolutionary implants
Four years ago Michel Roccati was involved in a motorcycle accident. He suffered what neurologists call a “complete” spinal-cord injury—he ...
4 ways to prepare for endless endemic COVID
The prospect of declaring victory is seductive at a time of widespread fatigue. Moreover, the challenge of unpredictability is daunting ...
Gene edited wheat in development in China limits damaging fungus without pesticides
Powdery mildew certainly sounds unappealing, but for wheat farmers the fungus can mean a serious hit to the pocketbook. It infects ...
Here are arguments for and against getting your child immunized against COVID
[Soon,] scientific advisers to the [FDA] will decide whether to endorse two doses of the vaccine for children 6 months ...
Fertility fraud: Should there be laws to disclose whether an ‘anonymous sperm donor’ was actually the fertility clinic doctor?
A growing number of people are finding out through DNA testing that instead of being “donor conceived” — the product ...
Transgenic GloFish escaped into the wild in Brazil
Fish genetically engineered to glow blue, green, or red under blacklight have been a big hit among aquarium lovers for ...
Viewpoint: Conspiratorial cognition — Anti-GMO US Right to Know plays point for ‘conspiracy activists’ pushing COVID lab leak theory and targeting virologists
From the beginning, the genomic evidence led most virologists who were investigating SARS-CoV-2 to favor a zoonotic origin involving a ...
What’s behind the boom in diagnosed autism cases?
Is there an autism epidemic? No. The increase in the autism rate recently reported by the Centers for Disease Control ...
Black Americans are under-represented in genetic studies. Here’s why that’s an issue — and what’s being done to address it
The overwhelming majority of genetic data is from people of European ancestry. As of early January, nearly 96 percent of ...
HIV treatment breakthroughs continue: 3rd person cured after undergoing umbilical cord blood transfer
Researchers revealed on [February 15] that an American, described as a middle-aged woman of mixed race, has likely been cured ...
Why will some people never get COVID — and why are they so important to researchers?
Some people don't get COVID despite being exposed to the virus — a mystery researchers are trying to unravel. Why ...
Living with chicken pox offers lessons for the COVID era
Last summer, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an internal presentation on the coronavirus, which was leaked to ...
Viewpoint: ‘We can’t dream in the biobubble’ — Swiss organic guru endorses gene editing approval to close agroecology’s yield shortfall
Organic farming is only a niche in Europe and worldwide. The important challenge is how to make conventional agriculture much more ...
After a decade of public debate and regulatory delays, genetically tweaked mosquitoes released in Florida in hopes to contain Zika and Dengue
Across the Florida Keys... newly hatched mosquitoes are swarming from damp flowerpots, waterlogged spare tires, trash cans and drainage ditches ...
Substack media platform has helped anti-vaxxers pull in $2.5 million, Center for Countering Digital Hate finds
Popular email platform Substack generates some $2.5 million each year from anti-vaccine newsletters, according to a new report from the Center ...
Viewpoint: Even if dangerous variants emerge in the future, here’s a case for why it’s time to remove all restrictions
As the omicron blizzard recedes, and as more Americans itch for pandemic restrictions to be lifted, a vocal segment of the country ...
‘Biggest limitation is legislative uncertainty’: Slow, steady adoption of agricultural gene editing expected in next few years
We all know that vegetables are good for you. And with advances in plant breeding innovation, this can accelerate the ...
