Science Literacy Project Daily Digest
USDA speeds release of data on biotech crops
The USDA is speeding up the public release of data about genetically engineered crops submitted by biotech developers. Under the ...
First stem-cell fraud case enters courts
Stem cell tourism may be on its last legs. Six Los Angeles residents are suing South Korean company RNL Bio ...
Muscular dystrophy, Cri du Chat, “immigration delay disease”: When DNA fails
We’ve seen already how freely genetics borrows from grammar books to describe how DNA works. Linguistic analogies also help make ...
New stem cell controversy: Possibility of stem cells in ovarian eggs could revolutionize in vitro
Are women born with all the eggs they will ever have, or do they possess the ability to make more? ...
500-year old gene provides window into evolution
Researchers have resurrected a 500-million-year-old gene from bacteria and inserted it into modern-day Escherichia coli(E. coli) - the bacterium has ...
GMO labeling measure receives prop number for November ballot
California’s Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act will be on November’s ballot as Proposition 37, according to proposition numbers ...
Discoverer of DNA says yes to genetically modified food
Nobel Laureate James D. Watson, credited for the landmark discovery of the structure of the DNA, says "genetically modified foods ...
Faster search of genomic data
Since 2002, the rate at which genomes can be sequenced has been doubling every four months or so, whereas computing ...
Your genes, your identity and your family secrets
Sometimes I think we are so numb to hearing about this new genetic test or that one that we forget ...
GM crops on the rise in Portugal
The growing of genetically modified (GM) corn in Portugal increased by 59 percent last year, being planted in 7,724 hectares ...
Is it now time for GM?
2012 is the 16th year in which commercial GM crops have been grown and incorporated in feedstuffs. Since the introduction ...
Biotech riders in proposed Farm Bill stir controversy
Critics of agricultural biotechnology say that genetically engineered crops can be harmful to human health and to the environment. They ...
Cells derived from burn tissue may be useful for tissue engineering
A research team in the Netherlands has found that cells from burn eschar, the non-viable tissue remaining after burn injury ...
Drought scorches much of US corn crop, but plant technology could still provide huge harvest
Almost a third of the nation’s corn crop has been damaged by heat and drought, and a number of farmers ...
Banana genome sequence will aid crop improvement
Scientists have sequenced the complete genome of the banana, an important crop in developing countries that provides a fruit widely ...
Personalized genomic medicine faces many hurdles
When the human genome project was completed in 2003, some expected it to herald a new age of personalized genomic ...
Should genetic screening be more supervised?
Thirteen-day-old Boxi is a "designer baby", genetically selected as her stem cells can be used to save her sister. We ...
Newly isolated ‘Beige fat’ cells could help fight obesity
Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have isolated a new type of energy-burning fat cell in adult humans which they say ...
New study shows GM crops tend to perform better than conventional
A paper published by Areal, Riesgo and Rodriguez-Cerezo in the Journal of Agricultural Science showed that genetically modified crops cultivated ...
New GM apple that won’t turn brown stirs concerns from NGOs, conventional growers
A genetically engineered apple that does not turn brown when sliced or bruised is in development. But it has much ...
A costly California food labeling proposal
The state of California is all but bankrupt–yet professional activists have figured out a way to send us even further ...
Can biotechnology solve China’s food security problem?
When talking about agriculture in China, you are likely hear two statistics over and over again: China is home to ...
Anti-GMO groups protesting farmer assurance
Organizations that are anti-biotech are throwing a fit over the “farmers assurance provision” that was included in the House of ...
Scientists identify rare gene mutation that protects against Alzheimer’s
After years of studying genes that increase risk for Alzheimer’s disease, scientists report the promising discovery of DNA that does ...
Stem cells restore toddler’s hearing
Madeleine Connor, 2, underwent an experimental procedure using her own cord blood stem cells to repair damaged tissue in her ...
Some insurers hesitate to embrace genetic testing
"For some people, the first symptom of this is cardiac arrest — they drop dead on the soccer field, the ...
Skin cancer-promoting gene discovered
Researchers have discovered a gene that plays a central role in black skin cancer, also known as melanoma. Suppressing this ...
