Science Controversies
AquaBounty saga: The troubling story of why it took 25 years and $100 million to bring a fast-growing, sustainable genetically-engineered fish to market
The first U.S. sales of the AquAdvantage salmon, a faster‐ growing, genetically engineered fish, have finally begun. The farmed fish ...
Radiotherapy can ‘fix’ arrhythmia without heart surgery
New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that radiation therapy can reprogram heart muscle cells ...
Infographics: Black and Hispanic Americans are closing the COVID vaccination gap
With the continued spread of the more transmissible Delta variant, unvaccinated people remain at increased risk for infection, illness, and ...
COVID pills: Pandemic kick-started long-neglected effort to develop potent antiviral treatments for coronaviruses
Antivirals are already essential treatments for other viral infections, including hepatitis C and HIV. One of the best known is ...
WHO greenlights historic malaria vaccine rollout in Africa — although efficacy is limited
Malaria has been one of the biggest scourges on humanity for millennia and mostly kills babies and infants. Having a ...
Pudendum ‘shame’ controversy: When medical terms promote sexist stereotypes
Allison Draper loved anatomy class. As a first-year medical student at the University of Miami, she found the language clear, ...
How artificial intelligence (AI) can help prevent the next coronavirus from jumping from animals to humans
New research by scientists at the University of Glasgow suggests that machine learning (ML) models developed using viral genomes can ...
Vaccine divide between wealthier and less developed countries grows larger
Nearly 10 months after the first Covid-19 vaccine became available to the public, the divide between nations that have shots ...
Microneedle vaccine patch delivers stronger immune response than a shot
Scientists at Stanford University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have created a 3D-printed vaccine patch that ...
Who should get a COVID booster shot now?
Who exactly is eligible to get the booster? If you are eligible, should you rush to get inoculated? What should ...
As climate disruptions escalate, CRISPR gene editing could create animal breeds resistant to disease, droughts and heatwaves
“It is every bit as important that we use the enormous power of gene editing to create breeds of animals ...
Gene editing can help agriculture adapt to climate change and meet UN Food Systems Summit goals
Gene editing continues to show great promise for developing more resilient and climate-smart crops to counter the mounting threat of ...
Viewpoint: Here’s the backstory behind Sri Lanka’s synthetic pesticide ban and organic only decree
For most folks, “Sri Lanka” is likely to evoke a number of thoughts: tropical paradise with swaying palms and cerulean ...
Infographic: What should pregnant women know about the COVID shot?
Facing months of conflicting guidance and unanswered questions, it's been hard for pregnant women to decide whether or not to ...
WHO assembles new team to investigate origins of COVID in China or elsewhere
The World Health Organization is reviving its stalled investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 virus as agency officials warn ...
Will Republican political resistance to the COVID-19 vaccine mutate into broader vaccine hesitancy?
In recent years, outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, spurred by low vaccination rates in children, emerged in wealthy, liberal places.... But ...
Merck’s experimental drug molnupiravir cuts COVID hospitalizations and deaths in half
A five-day course of molnupiravir, developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, reduced both hospitalization and death compared to a placebo ...
‘Doing nothing is no longer an option’: 15 agriculture experts assess England’s long-awaited decision to ease restrictions on gene-edited crops
The government have published a press release on new plans to unlock the potential benefits of gene editing as part ...
Tune out the media noise: Vaccine mandates are mostly being embraced — and they’re working
Apparently some editors have decided it’s just a fine idea to blast out the tidbit that Americans are quitting their ...
The increasingly isolated lives of a dwindling number of unvaccinated NFL players
Wherever you stand on vaccination, it’s difficult to argue that remaining unvaccinated is somehow not an impediment for an NFL ...
England breaks with the EU, plans to relax restrictions on gene-edited crops and open door to biotechnology-based climate solutions
Britain's farming and environment minister George Eustice announced on [September 29] that regulations related to gene editing in agricultural research ...
Pregnant women should get vaccinated as soon as possible, CDC urges
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an urgent recommendation [September 29] for pregnant women and those who ...
Viewpoint: ‘The vaccine is more harmful than the coronavirus itself’ — How one floundering Ohio lawyer played the right wing circuit and turned disinformation into a lucrative business
In one of dozens of recent media appearances, Ohio attorney Thomas Renz was claiming that coronavirus vaccines were more harmful ...
Viewpoint: Agricultural Cold War? ‘EU and US are veering toward a high-stakes stand-off over the global food system’
In the race to reduce the damage that agriculture is wreaking on the climate, the EU and the U.S. are ...
Should race be considered when diagnosing kidney disease?
A scientific task force on [September 23] called for jettisoning a common measure of kidney function that adjusts results by ...
‘Simple and ugly’: Reddit group named after Republican COVID denier Herman Cain grimly catalogues those who died after mocking seriousness of the coronavirus
HermanCainAward, one of the fastest-growing subreddits on Reddit.com, is exactly what it sounds like: an archive of those who have ...
Recently concluded UN Summit sets goal of ‘transforming the entire spectrum of food supply,’ battling world hunger, climate change and biodiversity loss
The UN held a Food Systems Summit as a virtual event on 23 September 2021, part of the 76th UN ...
