Science Literacy Project Daily Digest
Nuclear reactor on the moon? NASA’S race to transform space travel
NASA is fast-tracking a plan to build a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030 under a new directive from the agency’s interim ...
Creating easy pollinating flowers: How AI and gene editing work round-the-clock to speed up crop breeding
For millennia, developing resilient crops relied on pollination by nature or humans—making the process long and often costly. Now, scientists ...
Vindication for He Jiankui? Seven years after the Chinese scientist’s pioneering work landed him in jail, scientists and ethicists are exploring the inevitably of gene edited babies
A Chinese scientist horrified the world in 2018 when he revealed he had secretly engineered the birth of the world's ...
Farmers and MAHA forged a bond of convenience to help elect Trump. The weedkiller glyphosate is tearing them apart
The fact is, the Trump administration spends a lot of time trying to please completely contradictory parts of its coalition: ...
Sophie’s Choice: ‘My 29-year old daughter’s AI bot helped her write her suicide note’—but didnt alert anyone about her deteriorating mental health. Can we program intervention?
Sophie’s Google searches suggest that she was obsessed with autokabalesis, which means jumping off a high place. Autodefenestration, jumping out ...
Humanoid surrogate robots spark debate as China pushes reproductive frontier
A Chinese tech firm is racing to deliver what could be the world’s first “gestation robot”. The idea from Kaiwa ...
What is ‘Green AI’?
Degradation of the natural environment, resource depletion, and climate crisis are intricate phenomena requiring innovative and advanced solutions. This is ...
Genius children: Silicon Valley billionaires are throwing money at strategies to engineer brilliant children
This isn’t science fiction. It is Silicon Valley, where interest in breeding smarter babies is peaking. Parents here are paying ...
Plants digest diesel and polyester, break down pesticides and fabric dyes, and store heavy metals in their bodies. Exploiting nature’s powers to clean up the environment
With the products of our technology now woven into remote ecosystems and our own flesh, there’s no escape from ourselves ...
From non-browning apples to robot harvesters, Okanagan has a radical plan to reshape the apple orchard
Before Neal Carter invented the world’s first commercially produced bioengineered apple, he helped mechanize lentils in the Middle East, diversify ...
New Zealand’s plan to end 30-year ban on gene editing technology sparks ag industry optimism and public debate
The Gene Technology Bill was discussed at length at the second annual Plant Breeders' Forum in Ōtautahi Christchurch ..., hosted by the ...
Viewpoint: Cheryl Hine’s journey from Hollywood to MAHA: Former B-list actress provides an affable front for philandering, former drug addict husband, RFK, Jr.
As an actress, the public figure Cheryl Hines was just another Hollywood liberal. But as Mrs. Bobby Kennedy, she’s a ...
Bayer’s plan to contain still spiraling suits against glyphosate
Bayer will “significantly contain” glyphosate litigation by the end of 2026, CEO Bill Anderson said ... during the company’s second-quarter ...
‘Frankenstein bunnies’: Rabbits with antler-like tentacles are swarming through Colorado
Rabbits in northern Colorado have been spotted with bizarre, somewhat grisly horns on their face. But wildlife officials say the ...
Americans are eating less ultra-processed foods, but we’re still not eating healthier. Here’s why
Americans, on average, get 55% of their calories from ultra-processed foods, according to a study published ... by the Centers for Disease ...
Gene editing breakthrough: Chile becomes first country in the Americas to approve high fiber wheat
The Chilean startup Neocrop Technologies, in collaboration with the national seed company Campex Baer and Argentina’s Buck Semillas, has developed ...
Why AI and nuclear energy are inextricably linked
The explosive growth of the artificial intelligence industry, a boom that is still only in its infancy, is already triggering surging electricity ...
Viewpoint: The Catholic Church’s new guidelines on AI fail to account for the overlap of evolution and technology
While the Vatican acknowledges stages of technological development, it lacks a model of integrating science and religion that can adequately ...
Is sunscreen bad for your health? MAHA and social media disinformation threatens a resurgence in skin cancer
Sunscreen protects the skin by either absorbing or reflecting ultraviolet rays that can cause sunburn, premature aging and skin cancer ...
Understanding plant biodiversity: Myths and facts
[W]hen we say “lost genetic diversity”, everyone understands extinction both in terms of species and variety. The registered varieties have ...
Implantable brain technology: ALS patient is first to control iPad by thought
A patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has become the first person in the world to control an iPad entirely ...
Viewpoint — Agricultural biotechnology: Government regulations and court rulings in 7 jurisdictions around the world
Many courts around the world have issued judicial opinions about agricultural biotechnology. ... In chronological order of issuing the opinion, ...
Science, safety and solutions: GMO promotion in Ghana
Movements opposing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) remain one of the most impactful protest movements in recent times, successfully suppressing the ...
‘Scared …less’: Chemophobic ‘precautionary principle’ undermines science of food and health, and MAHA makes it worse
These days, the average American consumer … is scared $#!+less. Just about everywhere you turn there’s a health guru or ...
Viewpoint: Truth Social rolled out an AI Chatbot that relies mostly on rightwing misinformation purveyors
When I ask the new Truth Social AI chatbot about navigating bias in the media ecosystem, it gives what I view as pretty ...
Europe takes first step toward greenlighting genetic editing of food animals
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA’s) Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) Panel has published a new scientific opinion on the use of synthetic ...
How AI bots are redefining agriculture
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) in agriculture is transforming the way farming operations are conducted, marking a significant leap towards more ...
